M1N470: Reforged
by KingofZeroX
Summary: Four years after the original story, the metal is purged of impurities and once again reforged. A rewriting of Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon: M1N470. On that fateful night, a young boy stops being human and humanoid weapon starts her Journey as one, the butterfly effects of such an event changing their fates forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Metal Heart, Metal Body**

"Help! Somebody _please_ help!"

It was the first, darkest hour and the scent of death filled the air, changing the fate of the world, and amongst it all a young boy covered in cuts and bruises crawled from the wreckage of a car crashed into the side of a bridge. He called for help, his voice hardly more than a hiss from all the smoke he inhaled, but nobody came.

"Mommy… Daddy... please… come out. Don't leave me alone out here," he cried weakly, but nobody answered. He tried to stand, but his legs weren't listening to him. Nobody heard him. In this dark and scary world, he was alone. He'd thought he'd been a big boy, making it through that scary movie without elbowing Mommy and asking her to leave, when he didn't cry even though he hurt his ankle, when his parents left him on his first day of school and he was the only kid that didn't cry.

"You're... you're all messed up, but... you'll be fine," he croaked as he turned over onto his stomach, staring at the wreckage. "Just like when Daddy would play dead so Mommy wouldn't yell at him. You'll get back up. It's okay. It's okay."

There was no response but the crackling of the flames that ate his parents up.

"You'll be alright! You're always alright!" The boy screamed, feeling something warm in his throat as he tore it apart. He turned himself, tried to move closer to the car, but his body was ignoring him. His father's arm hanging out the window, covered in that red substance. Blood, just like when he cut his finger. But there was so much more of it. Too much. It was supposed to stay inside you.

"Don't... don't..." _Die_ , he meant to say, but the word wouldn't leave his mouth. He couldn't say that word, refused to accept it with all his being. He was just a kid, he'd never seen death before. That's what Grampa said. They couldn't be dead. He didn't know what death looked like, but still...

Something in him knew that they were beyond saving.

Hot tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, aching to be released, as he took in the salty air, polluted with the scent of blood, and realized that this... was loss, that he would never be the same again. Shining down from above, the moon dispassionately bathed the world in its sickening, green light. He cursed it. The boy would rather be lost in the dark, where at least he could perhaps be found, than bear to see the car turned metal coffin. It was a supernatural phenomena that caused the crash.

 _'It's not my fault. It's not my fault! I didn't do anything bad! I'm good! We just wanted to go see the movie! Go away! Bad feelings, go away! I said it's not my fault!'_ The boy mentally screamed.

Why was he so angry at himself? Why did this happen to him? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?! Why?! Why! Why! Why! Why...him?

He'd… he'd do anything if he could just hear their voices one more time. They were all he had left that he cared about in this world. Everything else faded away, disappeared when he got too close to it. He had no friends, no siblings, nobody else he could rely on. It was too cruel, as if the world itself hated him. What did he ever do to the world? He held his tears back.

 _'Good boys don't cry. If I'm good, they'll come back, right? That's how it works, right? Right? Right? Right? Right!..._

 _Wrong.'_

He was young, no older than seven and no younger than six, and didn't have the mental maturity to deal with sorrow, grief, anger, self-loathing all at once. It was too much trauma for his soul to process, an emotional overload. His sense of self began to crack under the pressure of this mental pain, so he sealed it all away into his heart and sealed his heart inside that metal coffin that his parents' corpses were buried in. For him, the world lost its color. He could no longer taste the salty air or smell that foul blood. He just sat and listened to the fires of crashed cars, the crackling filling up the entirety of his being.

On that day, with eyes as dull as unpolished bronze and a heart heavier than steel, Minato Arisato stopped being human.

" _Thou art I… and I art thou…"_

 _'I am nobody and you're nobody too.'_

* * *

An explosion rocked the lab as black matter was flung wildly over the scientist and equipment, the fragments consuming that as the remnants of the Harbinger they tried to create fled. One such scientist, his breathing ragged, watched a cracked screen as all limbs save for his left arm were being consumed by the Shadows. At the bottom of the screen, the words ' **ASW:AIGIS** ' were watermarked. Screams resounded in the lab, some got guns and tried to shoot the Shadows, but as the lab twisted and turned around them, transforming into something else entirely, only the monsters kept their balance.

"You can't stop it," he whispered with a twisted grin, "Let's all Fall together."

* * *

 **Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon: Aigis**

 **Live Reporting System: Active**

Target has been engaged. Identified Shadow as Harbinger Fragment: Death. In pursuit. Enemy has launched high energy output attack, Codenamed: Megidolaon. Taking evasive maneuvers, preparing Persona. I… did no damage. Target is strong. Accompanying units have all been destroyed.

I am the last one left.

The last of my kind.

I shall not fail this mission.

My Persona has slammed hard into the enemy, tackling it into a building as it continuously fires blasts in my direction. I have avoided all of them successfully. Firing all weapons. I have not ascertained a limit to Targ—...Enemy's stamina. Ammo has been depleted. Preparing Orgia Mode. Estimated amount of damage to the area has increased exponentially. Will calculate costs after battle. Enemy appears to be weakening. Estimated time till end of bat—

 **DAMAGE CRITICAL DAMAGE CRITICAL DAMAGE CRITICAL DAMAGE CRITICA—**

* * *

The girl who chased Death was sent flying off into the building after a blast of Megidolaon. Satisfied, the monster continued on its path, consuming every living being it encountered. It wanted to be whole, to fulfill its purpose and bring about the end of all things. It would make its Mother proud. The skull-faced beast of shadow flew through the city, tracking the nearest life it could find.

Alone on a bridge, was a young boy filled with unimaginable possibilities. Death was a being of instinct, thoughtless, and only did as it was meant to do. It was a force of nature, not a person, and it had come to claim this young boy. Just like his parents had been claimed by death. The child looked up at the monster soullessly, apathetic to the entire world. Unlike so many others, he had sealed away his own ego deep within himself. His Persona would not be dragged out and consumed so easily. Because of this, it took Death a moment longer than normal to give the boy true apathy before taking his life.

In that moment, a metallic leg collided with its face, sending it flying into a car parked along the bridge. The man-made, blonde girl landed in front of the boy, making eye contact with him. One arm was missing, a mass of wires extending from her shoulder in one place, and she had a hole gouged out in her side, but Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:Aigis was alive.

"You are safe," was all she said, but those words caused a glimmer of life to shine in the boy's dead eyes.

 _'A superhero?'_ He thought in awe and, for a moment, he believed the world didn't hate him like he thought it did.

The beast roared as it charged at her, angry that its meal was interrupted. She raised her arm and activated the protocol specifically placed in her for eliminating the threat should it get out of hand. It should have been a specialized weapon meant for destroying it, but instead it was an entirely different thing. She'd been hesitant to use this, and she'd been right. It wasn't a weapon. It was a device meant for sealing the Shadow into a person. She'd been tricked.

The white beam shot at Death before moving to connect to the boy. He looked at her the entire time, that glimmer of life still barely there. He trusted her. Believed she would keep him safe. She betrayed all of that.

Death, however, reacted strangely. The life in the boy was drawing it closer to him, but this bait laid out before it didn't entice it. Something's will entered, crawled and wriggled around inside it, repeating the same words over and over again.

' _Don't take the boy.'_

The voice was much like its Mother's and Death, being an entity that only fulfilled its Mother's purpose, did the only thing it could think to do. It would leave the boy, but instead, using the tether that tied the three of them together, it transferred the life it so desired into the girl. It was a curse only Death could accomplish. Its hunger must be sated.

* * *

Minato felt he was dying. His body shriveled up, flaking and wrinkling as he became an old man in seconds. His hair, once blue, turned grey. Across from him, the robot that saved him was healing herself, her metal replacing itself with flesh. He would die and she would live.

 _'Ah, I really am hated. Mommy, Daddy, it hates all three of us. I don't want to... die,'_ he thought as he turned his hand into a fist.

" _From the sea of thy soul I cometh…"_

 _'If only I could be a superhero like that girl.'_

His parents were waiting for him. They'd be disappointed if he went without so much as a whimper. He needed to make them proud, prove there was a purpose for them to bring him into the world, that their lives had meaning.

" _I am…"_

 _'I will be...'_

He locked eyes with the monster, wishing he had a gun in his hands, a weapon even a child could use. Something in him, something primal, wanted to fight against this fate. To break the rules of the world just to show that he had a right to live in it. If the world wanted him to die, if the world wanted him to always be alone, he'd change that world! Fight against the villains that destroyed something so beautiful. Only evil could be responsible for this.

" _Orpheus… Master of Strings…"_

The moment he heard those words, that singular wish was realized. Where his body was growing weaker, metal appeared, covering him, becoming part of him. His grayed hair went a step further, becoming unnaturally white and his bloodshot eyes turned red. Sparing a glance for the robot once more, he only saw a now young girl around his age. Her eyes closed slowly as worry ran across her face. Maybe she didn't intend for this to happen. Maybe she did. It didn't matter to him. If she was to live the life he was meant to, then he'd live as the machine hero she was and defeat this monster.

He stood, his body now obeying his every command. A red scarf was wrapped around his neck, hiding part of the lower half of his face. His skin was the same color it had ever been, but now he only had the skin on his face left. Everything below that red scarf was metal, his arms and legs covered in a white clothes. No longer could the boy claim to be a kid, for his body now resembled that of a young man. He'd become the superhero he'd imagined as a kid, an idea that mixed with the one hero he'd ever met in his life. That girl.

Empty of everything but his will to defy his fate, the boy, now suddenly a metal man, charged at Death fearlessly, but, before his fist connected, the monster suddenly entered the girl.

Once more, he was alone.

"It's your fault, isn't it. Not mine… I'll kill you..."

With those words that shouldn't have come out of the mouth of one so young, he collapsed.

* * *

The lone scientist laughed. In the broken lab that had mostly assimilated with the great labyrinth, his joy froze the air as he crawled forwards with his one arm. All the others were dead, their wills weak. No matter. They were pawns, all of them. So long as the king survived, he could always find more pawns, create more knights. Shadows looked to him, but none spared the time to leave their meal and try to claim one already being consumed by Shadow fragments.

"So that was it! I see, I see! A way to change fate itself! If that's so…" he trailed off as grabbed a small bottle of pills and a device that looked like a gun. Madness shined in his eyes. "Then I hope you don't mind if I steal your method."

On that day in the lab, one will to change the world had given new life to another.

* * *

An eyepatched man in a suit and a butler arrived on the bridge, flanked by several specialized soldiers who moved to secure the scene. Needless to say, quite a few had died today. The couple crushed in the car only intensified the bitter taste in the man's mouth.

"W-What happened here? That girl… she can't possibly be…" The butler asked as he began to pale.

"Close your mouth. Don't say a word more. Keep everyone quiet about this and take her in. Observe her. If she seems human, we'll grant her freedom, or at least the illusion of it," the man stated calmly, taking completely control of the situation.

"Yes, sir. What about the new machine?"

"Bring it to Yakushima, run some tests. Find out where it came from and how it operates. We lost the last active ASW, so see if we can use this undamaged one instead. I'm not letting my daughter enter Tartarus alone."

"...Yes, sir."

Takeharu Kirijo clenched his hand into a fist tightly, his nails digging into his flesh. He failed the people of this world, his father, and his own daughter. If he could protect her, he'd use any means necessary, even if it meant taking this _thing_ he couldn't even identify. In English, the word MINATO was engraved on the boy's chest, but, perhaps because the scientist who did the initial inspection was not well-versed enough to properly read the font, the metal man was codenamed: M1N470.

* * *

 **A/N:** The original has been around for about four years now, so I thought I'd try my hand at taking all I learned and attempting to write a better chapter. Back when I first started, I had no idea what I was really doing and tried to pass off a lot of my failures as intentional rather than taking proper responsibility for them and sometimes responded poorly to criticism. I was often too eager to please and that clouded my judgement, turning my story into something that at times wasn't even the story I wanted to tell. And now, currently, I've reach a brick wall with the original, so I decided to write this to help motivate me to get back into it (although now I'm just even more tempted to do a full re-write, as it would be a different story).

You'll notice there are things in this chapter that aren't in the original and vice versa. Rather than foolishly treating word count like a god, I introduced foreshadowing for events I only thought of later and stopped the chapter where it should have ended. I'd also rather have all my words be meaningful, unlike how they were in the original. And I cut out that whole sister thing because, to be honest, that was just me thinking I was being clever at the time.

If you liked this chapter, feel free to leave a review if you feel so inclined. Also, check out the Fandom Flux podcast on youtube where we talk about writing, tell funny stories and do all sorts of stuff. Honestly, being with those guys helped me learn a lot (as did becoming an English Major and taking actual classes), so I hope you guys could learn some stuff from us too.

Edit: Made it a full rewrite. Currently editing this rough draft.


	2. Yakushima, Island of Wonders

**Chapter 2: Yakushima, Island of Wonders**

* * *

 **A/N: Re-read last chapter if you were one of the first to read it, as there have been changes and improvements since.**

 **Before we start this chapter, I'd like to call attention to one Flux Casey, author of Persona 4: Face Every Shadow and whom I persuaded three months ago to do a rewrite and who encouraged me to do the second chapter of this and make it into a full re-write. Screw you, Casey (even though it isn't really your fault and I'm actually thankful) and boy is karma a bitch.**

* * *

"Humans must be both the most terrifying and beautiful things I have ever witnessed."

An elevator, a humongous blue elevator greeted him. Minato was seated in a white, lyre-shaped chair inside the ever-moving machine, facing a blue butterfly hovering above a desk. In all honesty, this was not the strangest situation he had found himself in recently.

"Where... am I? Who are you?" He asked. The blue butterfly glowed, seemingly pleased with his questions.

"Good, good! You are still capable of inquiry," the butterfly said. The moment Minato felt surprise, the relatively weak emotion died before it could reach his face. "My name is Philemon and... 'Welcome to the Velvet Room,' is what should be said here, but unfortunately this particular room does not quite fit the current you. Or perhaps it does? Even _I_ am not quite sure what you are, young man. This is the first time I've seen a human fused with their own Persona."

 _'Per...so...na?'_ That word made him tremble. Instincts he wasn't entirely sure were his own felt... it felt like he was hearing the word 'human' for the first time, giving a definition to what he was, but another part of him rebelled against that definition.

 _'No... It's wrong. That's me and also not me.'_

"To save your life, your Persona clawed its way into your material world, answering your wishes. Truly, a mask that protects its wearer. Death tried to take away your life, but your Persona filled the empty gaps, fusing with your body. As a result, your destiny has been shifted and your body and soul are not in sync now. This may cause problems, yet it may prove advantageous to you. Only time will tell," the butterfly flew towards him and, in a flash of light, it defied reason and turned into a man in a white suit wearing a butterfly mask.

"Your fate has been taken from you, child, and you are left with zero. Free of all restrictions, living a life that should not exist." Philemon whispered as he leaned in closely, his mouth right next to Minato's ear. "Limitless potential does not even describe you, boy. Zero, the Fool, the Wild Card... I could think of no titles more fitting."

"I'm still me," Minato stated. Philemon nodded.

"Indeed. In fact, you're currently more _you_ than ever before. And the power of the Fool, the Wild Card that wields multiple Personas, is so intricately tied with your soul that it survived the transformation. Others summon their Personas to do combat with Shadows, but you _are_ your own Persona. Thus, switching Personas might require a substantial change, like donning a new suit of armor."

The man returned to being a butterfly in a flash of light, and with the return of darkness, a blue pen appeared in Minato's hand.

A scroll of paper materialized from nowhere and unraveled itself before him.

"A contract. Just write your name below. All it says is that you'll assume responsibility for your own actions. You already know, don't you? Their deaths were not your fault. That's one responsibility you don't have to assume."

He hesitated briefly, but he signed. Philemon used a lot of big words, but Minato knew what responsibility meant. He was a smart kid. When his pen left the page, the contract vanished and the outer-casing of the pen faded away, forming a blue key. Shaking his head, Minato looked up at the butterfly.

"You're w-wrong," he said, choking on his words a little. "That's the one I have to assume more than anything else."

The butterfly known as Philemon sighed, his disappointment evident.

"One day, you'll return to this room and you'll be greeted by my former servants. Treat them well, I'm sure they'll give you the VIP treatment you need," Philemon said as he flew through the large metal gates of the every moving elevator. "You'll have to make very difficult decisions from now, suffer things you should not be suffering through. However, a Fool like you isn't nearly as hated by the world as you think. Do not give up on the world, even if it gives up on you, and that hope may be enough to save it. O childish, heroic Fool, create bonds, social links that will tether you to this world and let you see its brighter sides."

If there was one thing Minato prided himself on it was his memory, so, even though the child trapped in a hero's body couldn't understand now, one day he'd feel grateful for these words.

" Oh and by the way, I made sure to preserve your memory. Ordinarily you would have lost it. You'll need it. Its one of the few things keeping you human.

In an instant, the world disappeared.

* * *

Young Mitsuru Kirijo followed closely behind her father's legs. They'd been running tests on her again, trying to find out if they could replicate her Persona ability she awoke to, but once again it all proved fruitless. The winding laboratory hallways reminded her of a hospital, but sick people didn't stay here. Like her father always said, the sickness they were trying to cure belonged to the world. She always sneakily peeked at the windows as they passed by, sometimes seeing machines, other times seeing children around her age. Her father refused to let her talk to them, however. They were different, focused on saving the world. It would be rude to interrupt.

"This particular machine you'll be meeting, Mitsuru, will hopefully become a guard for you in Tartarus," he told her as they walked through the far too bright hallways. "If it has a prominent sense of self, I want you to befriend that self, make it loyal to you. Consider it a lesson for when you eventually take control of the Kirijo Group. Loyalty and respect are earned, so it's a training dummy for that purpose. We've taken to calling him the 8th Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:M1N470."

Mitsuru nodded, keeping her excitement behind the mask she practiced to put on around father.

"I understand."

He smiled, placing his large hand on her head, rubbing it slightly.

"Good girl."

Mitsuru pouted. She hated being treated like a kid.

They arrived at the big, metal door that led into Lab #08. The armed guards posted outside nodded at Takeharu's approach and opened the door for him without a word being exchanged before following both him and his daughter inside. Directly across from them, bound in metal clamps to a vertical, metal table, was a boy. Mitsuru was about to speak out, ask her father to let him go, when she remember his words.

 _'It's a training dummy for that purpose,'_ she reminded herself. He...it was a machine. Not a person. Snow white hair, a mouth obscured by a red scarf, a torso seemingly punctured with holes like a speaker, arms and legs covered in whites sleeves, gloves, and boots. It was otherworldy, unlike any person she'd ever met... But it did remind her of an anime she'd seen before.

Not that she watched anime! That was for kids! She was already seven years old and could write a lot of words in French. Mitsuru Kirijo was already a grown-up who helped her father!

The machine's red eyes opened slowly and it stared at the two of them. Mitsuru's mask cracked as she shivered. Scary. Its eyes weren't lifeless like the others, but so full of life they'd exploded in a supernova and became black holes, their gravity too terrifying to resist in their endless apathy. She'd never seen eyes like those before.

"You're awake. Perfect timing," Takeharu Kirijo said with a smirk dashed across his face. One of the guards pulled a chair from the corner of the room for Takeharu to sit in. The black-haired man gladly let his body sink into the cushions, briefly pondering when the last time he slept was. Another chair was pulled out for Mitsuru, but she chose to stand. She'd rather be ready to run, if necessary.

"Who... are you?" The machine asked, its steel visage unreadable.

"I could ask you the same. My name is Takeharu Kirijo, current head of the Kirijo Group, and the owner of the facility you currently reside in, M1N470," he said, the machine tilting its head at that name in confusion. Takeharu smiled warmly, but Mitsuru knew him better than to know he would ever actually smile. "I do hope you don't mind, but we've already codenamed you M1N470. Can't very well call you 'metal boy' all the time."

"Why am I here?" M1N470 asked, accepting the name without a struggle. The metal clamps restrained its arms, legs, torso, and even neck, but it didn't even seem inconvenienced at all by them.

Takeharu placed a hand on Mitsuru's shoulder. "This is my daughter. She's recently awakened to the power of Persona," he stated, noting the prominent flinch the machine gave at that word, "But she's the only one we have that can fight. You must have experienced it, haven't you? The Dark Hour, the twenty-fifth hour in which the sky turns green and the waters of the world run red as blood."

M1N470's eyes slightly widened, the most expression it'd shown all day, before going back to their apathetic state. Mitsuru, who was still inexperienced compared to her father, could read its reactions. Given how nothing else could cause it to move, whatever it associated with those words had to be strong. One thing was certain: This machine had emotions associated with memories. While that didn't necessarily equate a true sense of self, it was a starting point for bargaining.

"Guard her, help her to grow strong inside the great labyrinth Tartarus by killing the beasts within, become a force for humanity's hope and save the world. If you work for me on this, I'll grant you whatever you desire. Name your price," Takeharu offered. Again, the metal man flinched at the word 'kill'.

M1N470 moved, the metal clamps cracking open as he practically walked away from the table.

"Get back! Don't come any closer!" The guards shouted.

Screaming, Mitsuru hid behind Takeharu as the guards suddenly moved forward, aiming their guns at the monster. It stopped, however, making eye contact with the leader of the Kirijo Group.

"It killed them. It's that monster's... fault. Will you let me kill it?" M1N470 asked. Takeharu stroked his chin. A Shadow? Could it have possibly killed this machine's creators? Or could this be yet another of his father's sick side projects? Either way, it wanted to do what he wanted it to do in the first place. Even if it turned out untrustworthy, he could just leave it in Tartarus and let it kill as many Shadows as it liked.

"Of course."

"Then, I'll do my best. Because I am a hero."

Fear still showed itself in the tears edging at the corners of Mitsuru's eyes, but those words were filled with just the slightest amount of warmth. Maybe it... maybe he wasn't so scary after all. Takeharu reach back and patted her head, his hand practically saying, 'Your turn'. She got out from behind her father and took a step forward, moving past the guards even though they warned her against it. Coming close to him, she looked at his face that was partially obscured by a scarf. How silly it seemed now. It wasn't even cold in here.

"...My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. W-Will you protect me?" She asked, still a little scared of him. He got down onto one knee, and looked her in the eye, his expression as blank as it had ever been, and yet, looking at him this closely, he didn't seem all that scary. Those terrifying eyes she'd seen when he first woke up had lessened in pressure, becoming nothing more than simple lifelessness now. No, there was a spark there she hadn't seen before. Purpose. He knelt before her, like some sort of knight.

"The hero always protects the princess."

Mitsuru looked away suddenly.

"...Thank you."

Back towards the door, a scientist peeked in. Noticing his face, Takeharu stood and walked to meet him, staying inside the room while the scientist opened the door all the way.

"Quite unexpected, don't you think? He's at least as powerful as the one we recently lost," the scientist remarked. Takeharu frowned.

"Strong, but I'm unsure of him still. He accepted that way too easily. And... self-proclaimed heroism is a dangerous ideology. My father fell victim to it and, well... look where that got us," he said as he crossed his arms, watching the machine and girl awkwardly looking at each other, the machine just staring at her expressionlessly while Mitsuru desperately tried to think of something to say.

"Then I'll watch him. If he steps out of line, I can take care of him."

"With what? Your kids? You're very lucky I didn't shut you down after father passed away."

"And I have reassured you time and time again that they are all willing volunteers being treated as humanely as possible. You yourself have seen them. You know the necessity of their power. Trust me a little, won't you? I'm sure we'll be spending plenty of time with each other in the future."

"...Fine. You can watch him, Ikutsuki, but don't try any funny business."

The bespectacled scientist bowed, a glint in his eye.

"Sir, you wound me. The only funny business I deal in makes people laugh."

* * *

Free time.

That was when Chidori was let out of her cell.

It used to be twice a day, then once a day, and now she'd be lucky to receive it once a week due to "good behavior". She'd lost track of how long she'd been in this place, how old she was. The few memories she had of her time before she lived in this lab were unpleasant. It would be better to have just been created in this lab like some sort of monster. That's what she felt like, after all. Spending every day being poked and prodded, tied down, locked away. They felt nothing towards her, but sometimes, when she looked at them the right way, they felt fear.

She could tell from the way the momentarily stopped their work, or the way the trembled when taking her temperature. She fed on that fear, more than any of the crap food they gave her or the "nice" food she got when the scientists' boss was around. This wasn't the Neverland any of the kids thought it would be and none of them felt like they were "heroes". They felt like tools. At least she did. She hoped the others saw the truth. After all, almost all of the other kids from the previous group were dead. Only her and two others survived those tests. Telling the newbies of what was to come was forbidden.

So she took it upon herself to wander in the free room, a place filled with toys and books, a place meant to look perfectly acceptable to any who looked through the window. It was forbidden to act out here. You'd be punished and never seen again. But that didn't stop her from reading, listening, trying to gather any information she could. Once, she even snuck outside into the hall and then back inside. Nobody ever found out. She still remembered the feel of cold metal on her bare feet. Much better than the suffocating rugs of the free room.

"Get back! Don't come any closer!" A voice shouted in the distance. Her ears had perked up at the sound. When one spent hours and hours in the same room with nothing but their own thoughts, they tended to focus on whatever they could hear on the outside. It was a bit of a habit at this point. And, as it turned out, Chidori had good hearing.

She smiled at their fear.

"Another monster?" She asked herself aloud. How wonderful. Maybe she could finally put her secret power to use.

* * *

A combat demonstration was in order for M1N470. If he could break free so easily, it was a given he could be an overwhelming power in the hands of good. Led into a large arena where so many ASWs before him had fought in the past, the scientists watched him behind blast-proof windows. Takeharu and Mitsuru also observed and, as a sign that he was treating the kids properly, Ikutsuki let the children watch from their own separate window on the opposite side of the arena.

An alarm sounds, red lights flash. Like a single drop of rain, a heavy, metal cylinder fell from above, steam pouring out as it opened.

"This is your multi-function weapon unit. A weapon every ASW is known to use. Which shape you would prefer it to take is up to you," a scientist said over the intercom. At the same time, the walls opened and two spider-like machines painted black rushed into the scene. His opponents. Reaching into the tube, he pulled out a large metal rod with several buttons on it and metal folded on it at several points.

Watching from the side, Chidori smirked. This was what they were afraid of, wasn't it? Why else would they only give him a weapon after he entered the arena and they were behind closed doors. She looked at the other kids, all of them were enraptured with the metal man but her and two others. Jin and Takaya. The two she'd been plotting with for so long. They gave a thumbs-up in her direction, but she sighed. Subtlety was an art they'd have to learn.

M1N470 turns the weapon into a greatsword with a press of a button. He dashed forwards, swinging his sword with both hands and cutting it with brute strength, his sword slicing it in two before embedding itself into the ground. Straining before pulling out his weapon, his next swing missed completely, and the momentum sent the weapon flying from his hands.

Still expressionless, he ran forwards and punched the second enemy, his fist shattering the unit supported by thin, black legs.

 _'Even if he's unskilled, that strength... We need him, Medea,'_ she thought with a smirk.

 ** _[Need...him...]_**

* * *

On the other side of the arena, Takeharu frowned. Clumsy. Too clumsy. They couldn't train it like a regular ASW and have it absorb memories and combat experience. M1N470 couldn't be explained by any of their scientists in the time it was asleep. If it was an ASW, the technology making him up was too advanced for this world. So, they could only do the next best thing as far as training him was concerned. Raising a radio to his lips, Takeharu decided to gamble.

"Release her."

 _{But sir, she'll rampage! We'll be putting the entire facility at risk. Her half-formed Persona is too unstable!}_

"Do it," he commanded. He knew the danger. But they needed to put him to the test.

One of the walls opened up, a large metal box emerging through the opening before it closed behind it. The mechanical coffin hissed as the wirelessly sent command code reached its systems, ordering it to open. M1N470 retrieved his weapon and held it level at the coffin, his eyes inexplicably intense. The coffin swung open and from it emerged a girl, an ASW.

She took two steps before her eyes locked on to the greatsword he held.

"That isn't yours!" She shouted, her silver ponytail flowing in the wind behind her.

* * *

Rage, desperation, sorrow.

These were the things 5th Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:Labrys remembered before they put her away like a toy inside a toy box. She was a weapon, a knife they sharpened on the bodies of her sisters. Labrys could only be called the last of the 5th Generation because she killed all the others. A while ago, she'd tried to escape this accursed island.

It was obvious what the result was.

When her systems came back online, when she could finally think once more, what greeted her was the place she hated the most. The combat arena. Standing across from her was an ASW, the first male one she'd ever seen, wielding an all too familiar multi-function weapon unit.

#024's.

Was this a joke? Were they laughing at her? How many times did they want her to kill her best friend? That weapon wasn't his. First, she'd take it back. Next...

She'd escape, once and for all.

"That isn't yours!" She screamed before shouting at him. She didn't expect an answer. Knowing them, they made him empty, just like she used to be.

 _'I won't kill ya. I'll disarm ya, remove a few limbs, but I won't kill ya. You won't feel pain,'_ she thought, unable to say the words in front of their audience. She'd do what they wanted for a little bit, then she'd make a break for it.

The multi-function weapon unit was folded onto her back, the jets on what would become a giant axe sending her forwards, flying at the boy. His eyes widened slightly at surprise and he ended up winding the greatsword back, taking a stance she'd never seen before.

 _'Huh? W-What's he doin'?'_

Labrys, for all the time she was alive, had never fought an enemy that didn't face her with the most optimal methods available to them. What she was witnessing was unlike any combat style or programming she'd ever seen. She drew closer, reaching behind her back to grab her weapon. In a split second switch, the jets turns off and she let her momentum carry her as she began to switch the multi-function weapon unit to an axe. This move normally ended the easier fights in seconds. Unfortunately...

Labrys had never watched baseball.

He swung hard, hitting her with flat side of the blade and sending her through the air toward one of the walls of the arena. At the last moment, her systems had been able to react and raise her arms to block, but cracks now ran across them, her armor dented where the sword hit her. Labrys righted herself in midair, landing feet-first on the wall. Faster, stronger, his specs were obviously higher than hers. The weak points she normally saw in ASWs she fought were absent. There was not enough data to rely on for this fight.

 _'But I'm not gonna let him beat me!'_ she thought as she kicked off the wall.

"Is this what you all want? You want to see me broken? Like hell I'll let somethin' like that happen!" As she screamed that, an invisible force hit the boy from behind, sending him flying towards her, his weapon flying from his hands. An embodiment of her rage that she couldn't control, her Persona, was helping her at least. Raising her axe above her, Labrys prepared to bisect the boy as he flew towards her. His face was expressionless, reminding her of all the others she defeated. Even if she disarmed him and amputated his limbs, they'd still kill him after the fact. They always did.

Suddenly, his lips moved.

"Sorry," was all he said before he aimed his palm at her mid-flight. Sparks appeared out of nowhere, igniting an invisible, impossible fuel source, creating a fireball. Her systems tried to calculate every conceivable way out of this situation, but they were too close and it was too late. Against the powers of a fully-realized Persona, Labrys was defenseless.

"Agi."

And the fireball hit her dead-on in the chest.

* * *

Takeharu Kirijo couldn't be more pleased. This technology was beyond even his wildest hopes. Rather than summoning a Persona, it was almost as if this machine _was_ a Persona. With all the data they'd compiled both from when he was asleep and just now... They could save the world. Right the sins of his father.

M1N470 stopped after it defeated Labrys. The attack had torn a hole right through her, but, as long as her neck and head were safe, she was still operational. He motioned towards a scientist. They could still use her data rather than keep her as a last-ditch resort.

"Do what you usually do. She's no threat. We have something even better now."

The man nodded and ran down the hall and out with several guards behind him.

Slightly behind him, when he wasn't looking, Mitsuru frowned.

* * *

"Aren't you gonna kill me?" Labrys asked, unable to stand. Her mechanical nervous system was almost completely fried. If he got close, she could bite his ankles, but that would be about it. Labrys, the Anti-Shadow Ankle-Biter. Had a nice ring to it. Almost. The boy shook his head.

 _'I lost. I lost for the the first time, the only time. It doesn't matter whether or not you kill me, but, maybe you find value in family too.'_

"Daddy said to be nice to pretty girls. Besides, heroes only kill monsters."

Labrys laughed humorlessly.

"You call _this_ being nice?!" She exclaimed. He tilted his head.

"We were playing, right? You're a super fighting robot. They'll fix you back up," he answered as he crossed his arms confidently.

 _'He...Is he a child? What did they base his personality off of?'_ Labrys thought as she grimaced. The one they based her personality off was a sick girl, but she'd been old enough to know that wasn't playing. Not at all. She swore that if they were using younger children as base's because they were easier to control, she'd tear this place apart. Twice more than she would have normally.

"They're not gonna to fix me up. They're gonna shut me down for good 'cause you're the better one," she said, her optics picking up the squad escorting the scientist coming up from behind the boy. His expressions were minuscule, but his eyebrows moved just enough to express concern. Naive.

 _'I hope... I hope ya have somebody like #024. Somebody who can make the pain and regret bearable, kid,'_ Labrys thought as she resigned herself.

"Fantastic work, M1N470! You can go back now. I hope you don't mind if I do the honors of shutting her down, do you?" The excited scientist asked as he patted the metal boy on the back. M1N470 grabbed his hand.

"Don't," he ordered. "Good guys don't hurt friends."

 _'...What.'_ Labrys' jaw dropped. He continued to defy her expectations, but...

The scientist began to sweat as the guards all trained their rifles on the next possible threat.

 _'He can't possibly...'_ If he intended to defend a girl he only met a few minutes ago, he was too kind. They'd destroy him.

"L-Look, it won't hurt her, not a bit! I promise! She can't even feel pain!"

"Don't kill her."

 _'He is.'_ Labrys bit her lip.

"Oh, come on, boy, just let go of me. You can't kill what was never alive anyway."

"I just wanna say," Labrys interrupted, "That I have a list of people I wouldn't regret being collateral damage for my escape." She looked at the nervous scientist. "You're gettin' closer to that number one spot every time ya open your mouth."

One guard trained his rifle on her instead.

"Yeah, sure, point the gun at the cripple, why don'tcha," she muttered as she looked away.

"Mr. Kirijo!" M1N470 suddenly shouted. "Save her!"

 _'Is this kid for real? Why the hell would that man agr—'_

 _"Fine,"_ responded a voice over the intercom.

"What." Labrys said with a blank face.

 _"The reward you asked for was only work in the first place. You can have her if you can control her. Your combat is rather rusty, so having her as an instructor may prove useful as well,"_ Takeharu said. M1N470 let go of the scientist and walked over to his sword. The scientist left in a panic, the guards sighing as they slowly followed him out. Picking up his sword, walked back over to Labrys.

"Kid. I thought ya was gonna save me, right?" Labrys joked. Trust? He'd earned it. As far as she was concerned, he was family, possibly the only family she had left if they stopped making ASWs. A naive boy like him needed a guide, somebody to protect him. As his older sister, she was more than willing to take that role.

He put the sword down, knelt over her, and grabbed her open hand. She couldn't feel anything, but still she watched, his silent actions taking up all of her attention.

He placed the hilt of the greatsword in her hand, and closed her hand around it. She made eye contact with him, and he nodded.

"You wanted it, right?"

"...Dammit. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give me tears?" Labrys said as streaks of water ran down her face. Artificial tear ducts. Having a full range of emotional potential was necessary for manifesting a Persona, they said.

Labrys remembered #024 and Snowy, the little dog they took care of.

 _"I wish from the depths of my heart for you to be happy."_ The last words #024 left with her. Labrys missed happiness. Part of her thought she didn't deserve it, not after all she'd done, all the people she'd hurt. It wasn't right.

But...

Even so...

Right now, Labrys was happy.

 _'Your wish, #024... It's been granted.'_

"Sorry. Don't cry. A good thing just happened. Don't be sad," he tried to console her with his level voice. To some, he would seem insincere, but, to the person who'd heard many voices like his, it was the kindest voice she ever heard.

 _'No matter what, I won't let them hurt you, little brother.'_

* * *

By Takeharu Kirijo's side, Mitsuru smiled.

Where the children observed, Chidori smirked.

And, watching from his own monitor, Ikutsuki laughed.

None of them knew what was going to happen from now on.

* * *

 _Dear diary,_

 _I asked for you when they gave me a room. Let's be good friends._

 _I am made of metal now. I am like a robot. Strangers took me in after Mommy and Daddy died. They call me Em-One-En-Four-Seven-O. That sounds like robot name. I don't need a human name if I'm a robot. Also I'm protecting a princess now. I'm bad at talking to girls so I didn't say much._

 _They made me fight but it was just playfighting. The other robots got brokeded way too easy. I fought a girl but she just wanted a sword and I was still using it to play so I gave it to her after we finished playing but she cried and I thought I did a bad thing. A strange voice told me how to shoot a fireball. It's a tutorial! Ow. He yelled at me. He says his name is Orpheus and that "this isn't a game". He called himself a Persona but I still don't understand what that meant. Anyway the girl went with the sweaty science man to get fixed. I'm still bad at talking to girls but she kept smiling at me. I think I made her happy._

 _I keep hearing a new voice thing._

 _It said, "Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fool Arcana." It also said things like "Empress Arcana" and "Fortune Arcana"._

 _What does it mean?_

 _Mommy and Daddy would probably know. There were really smart._

 _I miss Mommy and Daddy._

 _But if I miss them too much it will hurt again._

 _I'll try to only miss them a little._

 _I can't tell anybody I miss them. If they know I'm a kid they won't let me fight. I need to fight the bad guys. Mommy said revenge is a bad thing but then why do I want it so much?_

 _Things are happening really fast but I'm being a good boy._

 _Tomorrow I get to guard the princess for the first time._

 _Are Mommy and Daddy proud of me?_

 _From the super fighting robot,_

 _Minato Arisato (M1N470)_

* * *

Finishing his entry, Minato moved to turn off the light before remember he didn't have a night light. Frowning, he just fell onto his bed heavily. He had to ask for that bed too.

Closing his eyes, he thought briefly of how weird everything was now. Only a day he ago he was a regular kid. Then Mommy and Daddy died and he got superpowers. He became a hero. Just like Batman or Superman.

The clock struck 12 and the Dark Hour began. The fluorescent lights turned green in hue. His face stiffening up, Minato hid beneath the covers.

 _[Child... To have been thrust into this strange place and strange body, suffering all the while... It is fine to cry,]_ Orpheus said warmly. The reply was more or less what he expected.

 _'Good boys don't cry.'_

 _{Hello, can you hear me?}_ A girl's voice suddenly entered his head. Another one? Was his head really comfy or something? She sounded slightly older than the princess he was guarding.

 _'Who are you?'_

 _{Hm. The reception is strong. My name is Chidori Yoshino and I am a prisoner of this place. I am also a sensor-type Persona-user. That is how I am speaking to you right now.}_

 _'Prisoner? Did you do something bad?'_

 _{No. All the kids held here are innocent, guilty of nothing other than being unluckily born. Somebody as kind as you... would you please save us from this thrice-damned shithole on water?}_ She was both refined and vulgar, this girl.

 _'What's a shithole?'_

 _{It's a hole where— No. It is just a bad place. I would rather not talk about what it means. In any case, I'll ask again. Would you be willing to help us escape this sh—...island?}_

* * *

 _{I am a hero,}_ he responded to her question. Chidori sighed as she placed her palm against her face. He'd shown a willingness to break the rules to save somebody else, so she'd thought it would be easy to convince him to help her. Little did she know, he had the mental maturity of one of the newbies she had to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

 _{Heroes save people,}_ he concluded. Chidori smirked. At least the simpler ones were always easier for her to handle.

 _'And what should I call you, hero?'_ She sent back.

 _{Minato—... I mean, M1N470. That's my hero name.}_

Minato. So he had a real name after all. She was quickly becoming curious as to who this mysterious robot even was.

 _'I have to end this quickly before they find out I have a Persona. We'll talk again. Welcome to Yakushima, the Island of Wonders, Minato,'_ Chidori sent back, sarcasm dripping off the end of her message.

 _{No, that's not my hero name. You're a meanie.}_

Cutting the line off, she fell back onto her bed with a smile on her face. Even though his voice had practically no tone to it, he seemed like a little kid. Maybe teasing him a little in the future would be fun.

It felt nice having hope for once.

* * *

Alone in his office, Ikutsuki smiled as he reviewed the data one last time when suddenly a message popped up on his computer.

 _{He's stabilized. Asking about the boy.}_

Ikutsuki grinned as he leaned back in his chair.

"Well then, I suppose I'll send him everything we found out."

He wrote his message, sending it through numerous encryptions, VPNs, even levels of security he himself had created that only he knew existed.

He signed it, _'For the glory of our Goddess Nyx.'_

* * *

"Good morning, sleepyhead! Rise and shine!"

The words greeted the girl.

The girl had no name.

The girl had no past.

The girl looked through the man.

Education.

Teacher.

Edo...goowa?

He called himself that.

Easy, easy, easy.

She learned it all.

"Broken?" She would ask.

They never answered.

They didn't understand.

Aigis.

They called her that.

That's her name.

They told her her past too.

She was a kid who lost both her parents. They were taking care of her.

Wrong.

The girl inside the girl said that was wrong.

The girl inside the girl called herself Death.

She said she came to visit because a door was slightly open.

Death was a funny name.

The girl inside the girl laughed at that one and changed the name to Metis.

Laughter sounded nice. Smiles looked nice.

She wanted more.

Teacher didn't laugh.

He was too busy talking about cards and science.

The girl tried learning about jokes.

* * *

 **A/N:** A lot is happening still, but all of it is important still. I'm sorry if the story is very dense and the pacing very rapid, but that's how it needs to be right now. Next chapter should slow us down, give us some Aigis, Ikutsuki, Chidori, and the introduction of Armors. In the original, I added a lot of depth to Chidori and she was a very popular character. As the game gives us no clear time frame for when she underwent the experiments, I used that a little bit so I could have her here (which will help many thing work smoother later on).

Also, some of you are asking about whether or not this will be harem and I've heard people wanting harem while others disliked the harem aspect. I never intended harem in the original, but made a poll and, well, it won. For now, I'm just going to let the story flow and see where it takes us. If it ends up being harem, I'll try to do it as tastefully as possible. If not, I won't just pretend the girls don't exist or anything. All the characters will still be fleshed out.

Also worth noting, Minato has the mental maturity of a six-year old. Grammar is not his strong suit.

 **Question of the Chapter:** If there was one moment you could bring from the original into this story, which would it be? If you're new and haven't read the original, then welcome. It's okay to be confused and have a lot of questions, so I won't ask you anything ;) Just keep on reading.


	3. Chainlink Bonds

**Chapter 3: Chainlink Bonds**

* * *

 **A/N: In the original, I was very much in love with the monomyth when constructing my story. In the rewrite, it contains elements of the monomyth and the Fool's Journey (though you could probably argue the same for the original, now that I think about it).**

* * *

Minato's favorite color used to be red. The action heroes he followed all wore red or they used the power of red flames. Red like his scarf he now wore. Red like blood. But blood was _too_ red, so red that it stopped being red and turned black, black as that monster that tried to eat him. He didn't like red anymore.

This wasn't to say he now liked blue, the color his hair used to be. The other kids always laughed at him for that. His parents called it a mutation that ran in the family. He was born wrong, so he had no friends. Minato liked that his hair was white now. White like the snow he once played in, white like Grampa's hair. Nobody ever laughed at Grampa.

So when he opened his eyes and saw just how blue this "Velvet Room" was and how the red sky loomed above, Minato jumped under the table the old man was sitting at. One of those colors was enough, but both?

Another dream, another new place.

Last time, it had been an elevator, but, like Philemon had said, that didn't quite suit him. Rather, this time he'd awoken to a seat built into a humongous, ever-moving conveyor belt made of velvet in the world's largest, bluest, metalworking factory. The velvet that covered the factory tried to hide the dirt and roughness, but it failed at several spots, leaving wide patches of rust and decay on the walls.

Multiple conveyor belts ran in the distance, some carrying metal, some carrying nothing, but all of them having a press crushing down against the conveyor belts before they fell into an inferno in a metal pot to be heated, reforged, and come out the other side. In the sky, where there should have been a ceiling, a red void existed, patterns of cogs turning against each other like veins in the body of this metal beast.

On the end of the conveyor belt where Minato and those two strangers he'd seen only briefly were, there was nothing. Their conveyor belt veered away from the rest, into a darkness they could not see the end of. Though they were constantly moving, they didn't seem to get closer at all.

"As I said previously, welcome to the Velvet Room. Now, kind guest, would you please withdraw from beneath my table?" The large-nosed and well-dressed old man who sat behind the desk said. Igor, he had called himself.

"No," came Minato's resolute answer. Igor sent a tired look to his assistant, a platinum-blonde in blue. Dressed as if to be an elevator attendant, she was just as out of place as the old man in his suit. With a smile, she walked over to the other side of the table where his feet sticking out and grabbed one.

"If you wish to play hide-and-seek, then I would be happy to oblige at a later date, but it would be best if you came out right now," the woman said as she grabbed his leg and pulled him out with ease. "For you see, I am the hide-and-seek champion."

"I'm real good at hide-and-seek too. I just wasn't trying, is all," Minato answered, laying on the floor and looking up at her with his arms crossed. The attendant laughed lightly as she extended a hand towards him.

"Oh, of that I am most sure. My name is Elizabeth, attendant to the guests of the Velvet Room, such as yourself," she said as he grabbed her hand. She'd succeeded in calming him at least. Pulling him to his feet, she commented, "This Velvet Room is shaped by the guest. If what you see here scares you, then the only one to blame is yourself."

Minato didn't reply after that, his eyes suddenly fascinated with the ground.

"Now then," Igor spoke up, "As our guest, we of the Velvet Room shall do what we can to guide you in your Journey. By now you have formed a few bonds, known as Social Links. By growing your bonds with these people, you'll be able to acquire greater power. In this place, you can fuse Personas once you have acquired them and, for you, a special VIP treatment is in order."

At those words, the world they were in flashed briefly back to that elevator with the mysterious doors lining its walls. In an instant later, it flashed back to the factory, though the doors remained, travelling silently along on the conveyor belt with them.

Minato's expression strained to look surprised, but it was hard when his life had become like the mangas he used to read with his parents.

"Please, pick a door. Any door," Elizabeth said with a smile. Feeling confident, Minato walked to the door closest to him on the left, a thick, steel door locked by several chains and padlocks.

"Of course the child would choose that one," Igor said under his breath.

When the metal boy's hand closed around the doorknob, it shined brightly and the locks glowed before disappearing one by one in small bursts of light.

Elizabeth gasped. "Master, he just–"

Igor waved her concerns off. "It is due to his unique constitution. If Fate deems his entrance into the that place necessary, then we shall not impede him."

Minato looked back.

"Did I win? Did I pick the right one?"

"That door leads to the origin of all Personas," Igor said as he turned his head to look at the boy, his eyes burrowing into Minato's. "The realm of unconsciousness. A being fused with a Persona such as you will not be denied entry, but returning is almost impossible. You may enter, if you like, but the enormity of humanity's thoughts, hopes, wishes, beliefs, and fears would crush your sense of self into nothingness. Without a sense of self, adrift in that terrifying place, you would stop thinking while every human being would have but a brief thought of you before forgetting and moving on with their day, the result of which being the complete annihilation of the concept of your existence."

Minato froze.

"...Does that mean bad things would happen if I went in there?" He asked. Elizabeth nodded.

"In summary, you would die and I would most definitely not want that," she answered cheerily.

Minato promptly walked over to the door across from him, the previous door resealing itself as he left it. This door was made of bamboo with large leaves around the top and bottom. The door knob itself was shaped like a smiley face. Upon grabbing the knob and opening the door, he was greeted by a sunlit island, crystal clear water, and the pleasant chirping of birds in nearby trees.

"I feel better about this one," Minato said as he looked back at the two of them. Elizabeth beamed as Igor slowly closed his eyes.

"Yes. That is the one we intended for you to take in the first place. Forgive my assistant Elizabeth. You're her first guest, a VIP guest at that, and she had wished to make the occasion… fun," Igor said, crossing his hands beneath his nose. "But now I'm afraid we must return you, young Fool. Another night and we shall show you what lies behind that door."

And thus the dream ended.

* * *

 **Mitsuru's Room, the Following Day**

* * *

"Um… uh… Hmmm. So, uh… Well, you see…"

Mitsuru had never been one to have friends. Her father mostly kept her protected, home schooling her with the best tutors around the globe since she could first remember. He'd even gone so far as to arrange a marriage for her with somebody she'd never even met far into the future. So when he stuck her in a room with M1N470 and told her to acquaint herself with him, Mitsuru was at a loss at how to start.

"Um… good job yesterday. You're very strong and you helped that other robot out too… I thought that was… very kind of you…" She trailed off, M1N470 silently staring at her. They were in her very spacious room, filled with red furnishings from top to bottom. To her queen-sized bed with a canvas over it, to the drapes, to the rug, it was all red with a black trim. Mitsuru thought it looked adult-like, but…

' _Does he hate it? Does it not suit me? No, why should I even care what a robot thinks! B-But he's the first boy to enter my room! But he's also a death machine… However, he was kind to that robot girl! But I'm not a robot…'_ Suffice to say, Mitsuru was conflicted.

"Red is a bad color," M1N470 stated bluntly. Mitsuru froze in shock.

' _That's what I was afraid of!'_

"B-But red is the color of my hair. That's not so bad, right?"

"Ah. Sorry," he said tonelessly, dropping his eyes to the ground. Mitsuru, trying to understand the mysterious machine, sat down against the wall.

' _Why is red a bad color?'_ She wanted to ask. However, the words wouldn't leave her throat. ' _Why did you always just look at me? Why do you insist on being a hero? Where did you come from?'_ Excellent questions, all of them. Perhaps, if she was just more eloquent, had more experience talking to people, she could have formed one of those questions. Instead, in a hurry to break the growing silence, she posed the one question she did not want to ask.

"W-W-What do y-y-you think of magical girl shows?!" She suddenly shouted, tearing the silence that separated them asunder with an embarrassed blush already enveloping her face. Suddenly covering her mouth with both hands, Mitsuru was about to ask him to forget her question when he nodded thoughtfully.

"Sometimes… when nobody was home… I'd watch them," he admitted. "Is it not cool for a boy to watch them?"

' _He...what? What?! I-Is this a chance?!'_

"It doesn't make you less cool at all!" Mitsuru frantically waved her hands. Under her breath, she added, "How can you even ask that when you're a cool battle robot…?"

"Um, anyway, I was about to give up on anime because I'm not a little girl, but, maybe… would you l-like to watch with me? As purely educational material of course! You might learn some powerful finishing moves or… something..." She asked. When he nodded, a fire sparked her eyes.

"Then! Let's! Watch!" She shouted excitedly as she stood to her feet. Grabbing his hand as she ran past, she pulled him to the red television nestled in the corner of her room. "Allow me to show you, Mahou Shoujo Piru-tan !"

With a push of a button, the screen exploded with color, hearts and cheery sound-effects. M1N470's eyes widened as he was bombarded with the stimulus of television. Pulled to the cushion placed in front of the television, he didn't even notice Mitsuru sitting seiza on the cushion beside him, bouncing on her knees excitedly.

For the first time in a very long time, Mitsuru felt like a kid.

And, to be honest, it wasn't that bad of a feeling.

* * *

"GO, PIRU-TAN! **EXECUTE** THEM!"

Mitsuru was shouting at the screen. The protagonist, a scantily clad magical girl named Piru-tan, was charging her ultimate attack, the Frozen Execution in which she trapped her enemies in a block of ice until they became good guys. It was a morbid and unrealistic concept. Minato, had he been human still, would have felt fearful of how excitably Mitsuru was telling someone to execute another.

Afterwards, Mitsuru gave him a test based on the show, claiming that it really _was_ for educational purposes.

Minato passed "with flying colors". Except for red. Mitsuru pouted when he pointed out that he wished to exclude it.

" _ **Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Empress Arcana."**_

* * *

 **A Few Magical Hours and One Quiz on the Properties of Magical Girls Later**

* * *

Steel clashed against steel in the combat arena.

"Come on, Minato! If ya can't beat me without takin' me by surprise with that Persona power, then you'll never be strong enough to beat Shadows and protect that girl!" Labrys exclaimed as she once again disarmed Minato. Pushing up his chin with her axe, he raised his hands up in surrender.

"Don't call me that. That's not my hero name," he insisted. Labrys laughed as she retracted her axe, twirled it, and placed it against her shoulder.

"M1N470 kinda looks like Minato in English, ya know? I like that name better," she playfully stated. Her eyes narrowed as she walked over to him. Leaning in close to him, she said, "M1N470 is the name of a tool, not a hero. You are _much_ more than that. You're a person. Don't ya ever forget that, okay? You're _alive_. If ya weren't, ya would have killed me yesterday. Understand?"

Minato shook his head.

"No, it's my superhero name," he stated as he crossed his arms. Labrys laughed before readying her axe and gritting her teeth.

"Well then! It looks like big sis Labrys will have ta beat some sense into ya!" She shouted with a growl. He needed to get stronger, both in combat and in his spirit. Labrys knew she couldn't always be there to protect him. They wouldn't let her out of the room they stuck her in except to help train him. The last thing she wanted to see was him becoming a mindless weapon like so many others before him.

ASWs… they had souls, didn't they? They were just as human as humans themselves, right? She had to believe they did. For her own selfish sake, she could never allow herself to think otherwise.

He picked up his sword. It was the same weapon as last time. She'd let him use it. He was family, after all.

Charging at him, Labrys suddenly dipped low, swing her axe at his feet. Unable to react fast enough, the attack took his feet out from under him. Before he could fall, Labrys grabbed him out of midair and pulled him into a hug.

"You're not a superhero," she said as she held him in a tight hug. "If ya try to be a hero, then all you'll ever do is give and give until ya have nothing left to give."

"I… I… I have to be one. If I don't, then they… died for nothing…" Minato whispered, his eyes dull. Labrys tightened her grip.

"I dunno who it is that your talkin' about, but nobody dies for nothing," Labrys said warmly. "If you're still thinking of them, if they still mean something to ya, then they didn't die for nothing. And even then, just by living, they changed the world in some way."

All the sisters she had to kill didn't die for nothing. Their memory, their data, resided in her. As loathe as she was to admit it, their deaths made her stronger. She had to believe their lives mattered. Admittedly, that belief fueled her own guilt, but the moment she treated their lives as nothing, she'd be the very same as the damn scientists that created them and made them fight in the first place.

Breaking out of the hug, she looked in his eyes. Where there was once nothing but empty purpose, there were sparks. Something that distinctly separated him from all the other ASWs she'd seen, something Labrys could only describe it as "life".

"Then help me," he said as he raised his sword once more. "Make me strong enough that I'll never have to live with seeing more people I care about dying in front of me."

"You'll never be strong enough for that," Labrys said, "But I'll train ya so that most of the time you can stop it. And I'll be there with you to help ya live with yourself when ya fail. You're family, after all."

"Family?" Minato asked. Labrys grinned.

"We're two of the same kind, as far as I can see. I'm 5th Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:Labrys and you're the 8th Gen. That's what the doc told me," She said with a wink. "Long as we have each other, we're not alone. Don't worry. I'll look after you as best I can, little bro."

Minato's expression froze for a moment, and then Labrys' optics picked up the slightest twitch at the corners of his mouth.

"Now, come at me! With heart this time! You're alive, dammit!" Labrys shouted as she raised her axe.

Once more, the two ran at each other to continue sparring, weapons brandished, but this time…

Minato never lost hold of his weapon.

" _ **Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fortune Arcana."**_

* * *

Leaving the combat arena and waving goodbye to Labrys, Minato was faced by a bespectacled man with brown hair waiting outside.

"Hello, M1N470! At the current moment, Lady Mitsuru is going through her classes. Though I see that you are too are being _schooled_ ," he said as he pushed up his glasses, chuckling at his own joke. Minato didn't find his words funny at all. The man suddenly extended a hand towards him.

' _Daddy… Dad always said to be polite.'_ Minato thought as he reached out and shook the man's hand lightly. Satisfied, the scientist let go and took a step back, bowing deeply before Minato.

"My name is Shuji Ikutsuki, head scientist of the Nephilim Project here at Yakushima. We take talented, consenting, young individuals and seek to awaken their Persona through," He looked up, still bowing at the waist, "Scientific means."

 _[This person… He experiments on children then? Would he be the one responsible for Chidori's imprisonment?]_ Orpheus suddenly chimed in.

' _Should I beat him up?'_ Minato suggested.

 _[No. Hold, young one. See what he must say to us first.]_

"What do you want, Mr. Ikutsuki?" Minato asked emotionlessly. Ikutsuki came out of the bow to stand at his full height, slightly taller than Minato himself.

"Let's go for a walk, shall we? I think it unfair you haven't been outside yet." And with those words, Ikutsuki turned and walked away. Minato followed him, still unsure what to make of this mysterious man.

* * *

 **The Forest, Yakushima Island**

* * *

The sun.

He missed the way it brought natural light over everything, the way it filtered through the leaves like when he once went camping. Birds sang their merry songs, all manner of small critter darted out of the corner of your eye, and everything was in order. Out here, in the wild, life was how it was meant to be.

Ikutsuki stopped in this small clearing and turned to face Minato. The whole way, the metal boy had been silent, unsure of what to even say to this stranger. Ikutsuki breathed the fresh air in deeply, exhaling with a smile in his voice.

"Oh, I love the outside air! So refreshing that I no longer feel winded! Life is just being breathed back into me!" Ikutsuki said with his arms spread wide open.

His audience, Minato, was stone-faced.

"Anyway," Ikutsuki said before coughing briefly, "I thought I'd get to know you a little better. The others in there, they all see you as a machine, don't they? Even that little girl you promised to protect." Ikutsuki took a step closer. "But I know better. I know that underneath that harsh, emotionless exterior… is just a lonely boy."

Minato's eyes widened. "What do you know about me?"

' _He… can't have figured out my secret identity. I didn't tell. Nobody could tell,'_ Minato reassured himself.

Ikutsuki's eyes shined in delight.

"I know that you believe yourself to be a hero. I know that, in the big and scary new place you found yourself in, you are lost and confused, clinging onto whatever you can in an attempt to stay afloat," Ikutsuki said before raising one finger. Slowly, he pointed to himself. " _I_ can guide you, if you so require it. I can help you. If you'll permit me to take you somewhere, there is somebody I know of who would very much like to meet you as well. Say the word, and I can take you away. There's a place where you will be treated as an equal, as a human. The people here at Yakushima, if you let them, will only use you."

 _[Young one, perhaps it might be best to consider his offer. You don't owe these people any debts that must be repayed. You are still very young and yet they expect much of you.]_

' _I…'_

"Don't need your help, Mr. Ikutsuki. Thank you for the offer, but big sis Labrys is already teaching me a lot. I also promised to protect Mitsuru. You shouldn't break promises," Minato said, meeting Ikutsuki's eyes with his.

Ikutsuki laughed.

"Fair enough. I'll keep the offer open, however," he said as he pushed up his glasses. Walking past Minato, he added, "Standing by your word is very much a hero-like thing to do, but, if things continue this way, I doubt you'll truly save anyone."

"What do you mean by that?" Minato asked Ikutsuki's back. The man didn't respond, so Minato wordlessly followed him back.

" _ **Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Devil Arcana."**_

* * *

 **A Peaceful Room**

* * *

Today, Aigis made Teacher laugh.

It was hard.

She tried to make a joke, but Teacher didn't laugh.

She tried to tell a funny story, but she had no real memory.

But then she tripped and her toy bucket fell on her head. It didn't hurt, but Teacher laughed.

Later, she tripped and hurt her arm, but Teacher didn't laugh and told her to be careful.

Why was one thing funny?

In the white playroom that became a large part of her life, Aigis experimented time and time again.

When he laughed, she felt good.

When he smiled, she felt like she belonged.

Laughs and smiles.

In that room where she was cut off from everybody else, laughs and smiles made her feel alive. When somebody laughed because of her, it was almost as if she left a piece of herself with them, a happy memory. Even if she disappeared, that piece would remain. That fact comforted her when she was alone.

Gradually, the girl known as Aigis began to have a wish. Metis laughed at the wish so Aigis made her be quiet. Metis eventually stopped talking. Aigis was fine with that. She didn't want to be friends with anybody who didn't like her wish.

Aigis sincerely wished to meet many people and make them happy. Why would somebody kind laugh at that?

But even so…

She missed the voice in her head that kept her company.

* * *

 **That Night**

* * *

Minato returned to his room, having spent the day marathoning anime with Mitsuru and training with Labrys. He never grew tired, nor did he ever hunger or feel thirsty. Not that he had a sense of taste anyway. When he got hit by Labrys, he felt no pain. When Mitsuru gripped his arm during the Piru-tan's transformation sequence, he couldn't feel her touch.

" _You're alive."_ Labrys' words echoed in his head. Frowning, Minato held up one metal, gloved hand.

"Even if I'm like this, I'm still alive, huh?" He said to himself. A lot had happened, too much to really process. He thought about writing in his diary, but decided against it. There was a certain catharsis in losing himself in his own thoughts, finally alone.

Friendship, family, heroism, guidance. He felt younger than he ever did with all these concepts pressing down on him. Part of him wished he could just make an adult take away all his problems and stop thinking about them, like Ikutsuki offered. It would be so very easy to run away. When they found out how old he really was, would they even blame him?

 _{Minato? Can you hear me?}_ Chidori's voice suddenly invaded his mind.

' _Yeah. I hear you.'_

 _{There's a scientist I need you to find. As far as I can tell, he's in charge. He has a set of keys.}_ The image of scientist with short, black hair popped into his head. The scientist's mouth was wide open in mid-scream. Minato didn't have to guess whom he was screaming at. What surprised him was that this person didn't look like Ikutsuki at all.

 _{Take the keys from him. He'll be watching your combat practice tomorrow to… relax, I suppose. He plans to congratulate you if you do well. The scientists' boss, the owner of this place, will be coming by to do one more check before he leaves. He doesn't know what happens in this place, so we'll be in our "playroom" and acting happy. Go with him. Find a black-haired little boy in glasses and hand the keys to him. We'll do the rest and nobody will ever suspect you.}_

Was it possible that even Ikutsuki wasn't deeply involved? Maybe the man was innocent, like she described Takeharu Kirijo as. Even if the Arcana he had was the Devil, did that automatically make him guilty?

' _Why don't I just give the keys to you?'_

 _{...I… won't be with the others.}_ The message she sent back could only be described as melancholy. Sensing that, Minato decided to not pry for answers.

' _How do I steal the keys without anybody finding out?'_

 _{...I know you're a robot, but use your imagination. Be creative. I_ _ **won't**_ _be there to help you.}_ There was a certain edge to that mental voice near the end. As if sensing her own tone, she softly added, _{But, if you were to bump into him, grab the keys and hide them somewhere… that might work.}_

' _Why don't I just tell Mr. Kirijo what's going on?'_

 _{If it gets found out that you did that, and it will, we'll all be killed before anyone can save us. These people know everything that goes on here.}_

Minato sat up. This place, this Yakushima, he found himself in when he'd woken up in the body was cruel. They almost killed Labrys and they have children like Chidori locked up. Who knew the full scope of the wrong they did for the sake of making the world a better place? If he was a superhero, wouldn't this be like a supervillain's lair?

 _[Remember what Labrys said? You do not have to be a hero. Who could stop you from leaving this place?]_ Orpheus chimed in caringly. _[You will just give and give until you have nothing left to give.]_

' _No.'_ Alone in the dark, Minato shook his head. With every fiber of his being, he refuted those thoughts. ' _I won't run away. I already have nothing left to give, so in that case… can't I save everybody?'_

' _I'll save you all, no matter what.'_ He said to Chidori.

* * *

In a pitch-black room, Chidori smiled slightly as she closed the connection, hugging her knees to her chest. Her arms were bandaged in several places. Shot Day, where they normally tried to use drugs to stimulate the formation of a Persona, but her Persona had already manifested, just like Jin and Takaya. Their secret. Medea was her best friend.

Today, they found out about **her**.

Dangerous, they called Medea. Chidori knew better, though. Medea would never hurt her. They didn't need to lock her away in solitary confinement for the night. Medea didn't mean to hurt that scientist, didn't mean to make the other one scream. Medea was just worried about all the needles. Medea could be relied on. Medea gave her hope. Medea allowed her to meet the hero Minato. Medea would never allow Chidori to be hurt. Never ever hurt her.

Medea. Minato. Medea. Minato. Medea. Medea. Hope.

A bandage fell off Chidori's arm. There was no wound there anymore. Chidori proceeded to tear them all off, her arms now pristine and bare. Tomorrow, she leaves. If she stays one day longer, they'll try to take **her** away.

Those scientists called Chidori names.

Thing. Monster. Demon.

 _Witch._

Wasn't she what they wanted?

' _They say I won't live long, Medea. They say you're broken. But you're not broken. There's nothing to fix. We're not broken. Not a scratch on us. They're the broken ones. Not us. Medea, Medea, Medea, when we leave, Medea, shall we break them even more?'_

 _ **[BrEaK.]**_

* * *

An endless sea surrounded the island, mirroring the sky in its blueness. Dark clouds hung on the horizon, but, for now, the sun shined and the plant life flourished. There were no animals, no birds chirping, no crabs scuttling alongside the sandy beaches. In the middle of the grassy island was a hole with a waist-high stone fence around it. Looking into the hole from that fence, Minato couldn't see the bottom.

"This is the Forge, the door you selected," a voice rang out behind him. Turning, he found Elizabeth there, smiling kindly. "We are currently in the sea of your soul. Long ago, our Velvet Room could infuse Personas into weapons, but that technique was stolen from us and thus, the Forge was closed down. As the Wild Card," she said as she approached him, "You can wield multiple Personas, though that may prove impossible given your… current state, so we are here to change that, to give the furnace fire once more."

"How?" Minato asked. Elizabeth tenderly put a hand on his shoulder, she leaned in close, bringing her mouth to his ear.

"By giving it fuel," she whispered.

And then she pushed him into the hole.

* * *

 **Next Chapter: Heat**

* * *

 **A/N: Current Social Links for Minato**

 **Fool: 1 Empress: 2** **Fortune: 2** **Devil: 1**

 **Oddly enough… a Social Link for Chidori has not yet formed. Hmmm… Did you know that Italian for "witch" is Strega? Yeah, I know. It's an old game and I'm not clever. Oh well.**

 **Next chapter, we get to see a familiar instrument and the introduction of Armors. It will also conclude the Yakushima Arc.**

 **Question of the Chapter: What do you believe a "true hero" is?**


	4. ﾛﾛﾛﾛHeat

**Chapter 4:** **ﾛﾛﾛﾛ** **Heat**

* * *

 **A/N: In my own opinion, a hero is "one who stands where others would fall", though I also agree with several of your guys' interpretations. Thanks to Erin Carde for betaing this chapter and discussing a lot with me. Also thanks to Flux Casey for giving me some solid advice as well.**

* * *

 _Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound, the stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found._

 _The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine:_

 _'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonising lyre;_ **— Excerpt from The Hymns of Orpheus, Hymn 33: To Apollo**

* * *

It was snowing that day.

He'd never seen snow before. They dressed him for the occasion, head to toe in jackets, gloves, a red scarf. Back when he loved that color, he would only wear that red scarf. It kept him warm, reminded him of his parents who watched from a distance. They wouldn't play with him in the snow, but he felt warm still, like nothing could go wrong. As long as they were watching, he was safe.

' _Mommy… Mom was sick a lot, so she didn't usually go out in the cold. Dad didn't like the cold either. He'd rather stay and protect Mom from the cold.'_

Other children played, threw snowballs, some even fell and made snow angels, but he found that boring. He'd fall into the snow and lay in it like it was a bed made for him. Cold, slightly wet, but there was softness and comfort there. That day, he stuck his head in the snow and pulled it out, his blue hair mostly white, just like all the other kids who played. He got sick later from all the cold, but...

For once, he felt like he was like everyone else.

For once, they all played together in that park.

For once, he...

This was the scene Minato saw after he fell into the Forge. There he was a child, lying in the snow and grinning like a fool. He remembered falling, being pushed in, but everything after that was a blur. All he knew was that he somehow ended up here, in a place and time he thought he'd never see again.

"The Forge implants itself in your soul, leaving a hole," a voice said. It came from everywhere around him. "So where do its flames come from?"

"...Me?" Minato answered. The voice hummed in approval. He recognized that voice. "Orpheus?"

"I am you and you are me. Can't you see? If the Forge needs fire, then fuel it with desire," Orpheus answered.

"...Do you have to rhyme?" He asked. Orpheus laughed.

"I am a poet. Didn't you know it?" He replied cheerfully. Ignoring him, Minato pressed forwards. He gazed at his parents in the distance and clenched his fist.

' _I want to be a hero,'_ he thought. For a second, he felt a small amount of warmth in his hand. Not enough. He watched the children play together.

' _I want to save everyone,'_ he hoped. The warmth felt the same and vanished just as quickly.

"We are in your soul. It is so very cold, the memories old," Orpheus commented.

"You are not helping," Minato stated bluntly as he fell back into the snow next to his younger self. Looking at himself was so odd. Even though he remembered looking like that young kid, it didn't feel like him. Thinking of what Orpheus had said, he briefly wondered why it was _this_ memory that was chosen? Certainly, he enjoyed this day, but why would—

Then it hit him.

' _More than anything, I—_

* * *

A pillar of blue flames as wide as a house shot out of the hole into the sky, the force of which almost made Elizabeth take a step back.

"How beautiful," she commented as the blue light reflected in her eyes.

How does one rekindle the Forge? This question had long since been pondered by the denizens of the Velvet Room until they had finally given up on trying. At least, that was how it should have been. In truth, there was one method to bring the flames back. A Wild Card who was a guest of the Velvet Room had to go down there and fix it themself. Since the Forge transplanted itself in the sea of the soul of the current guest, a denizen could never go down without being rejected by it.

But if a guest existed that was tied deep enough with their Persona that they could enter the deepest core of their being and ignite it, then all could be restored. Of course, this all had been theory that Igor and Elizabeth tossed around to pass time as neither of them even knew _how_ to reignite the Forge. Only Philemon had known.

Within Elizabeth, something stirred. The impossible became possible. In his free time, Igor used his tarot cards to predict the future. He predicted that her precious guest would take the door to the Forge first. He was wrong. He predicted the Forge would never see use again.

He was wrong.

The pillar of flames dissipated and a single, metal boy remained in the air. Elizabeth took a step backwards as he crashed into the earth feet-first, cracking the ground under his weight. She couldn't understand him. Even for one as knowledgeable as she, he left her stumped. Curiosity burned brighter than any other emotion as she saw him stand up straight, holding a golden lyre in his hands. Just where did he get that? Did the Forge create it? How? What could it have used to construct an instrument of all things?

She wanted to discover how he did what he did.

She wanted to understand him.

She wanted to know him.

" _ **Thou shalt be a blessing to he who has forged a bond with the World Arcana."**_

His eyes widened and she knew he had to have heard something similar. The World Arcana was hers, wasn't it? Or was she the World Arcana's? Either way, the truth remained. He had _moved_ something in her that she never thought could be moved.

"Welcome, dear guest, to the now active Forge," She greeted. "Please, keep your hands and feet away as falling in is very much a hazard."

"You could have said that earlier," Minato retorted. It was slight, but she noticed his frown. Elizabeth laughed.

"If I may pry, I am curious as to where that instrument you hold came from," Elizabeth inquired, pointing at the lyre in Minato's hands.

"Orpheus gave it to me because he liked my answer. He called it 'a weapon to move people's hearts'," Minato explained. Elizabeth's curiosity was hardly sated with that much, but they were running out of time before he'd be sent back to the waking world. Motioning to the hole, she started her explanation.

"This Forge is how you change Persona. This solution is one that would work for you and only for you. The Forge that you sparked is powered even further by your Social Links. The stronger the bond, the stronger the things forged in here relating to the Arcana of the Social Link. Because Orpheus is your new body, you will be unable to truly change Personas without killing yourself. Thus, we will add armor to you while keeping the unaltered Orpheus body as a default, making you both that Persona and Orpheus. This," She said, holding out a blue card she pulled from a book that appeared in the air before her, "Is the Persona Pixie. A low-level Lovers Arcana. Watch."

Elizabeth tossed the card into the Forge. Blue flames shot out of the Forge and burned through one of the few clouds drifting lazily overhead. The fire suddenly changed direction and collided with Minato, the blue flames entered him without burning him at all.

A blinding light flooded the area before it disappeared, taking Minato with it. His time ended before he could show off his newfound power.

Elizabeth sighed happily.

"I am sure everything will be as right as run. Ran? Rain? Oh, nevermind. I have plenty of faith in my first guest."

She held out her hand and a blue door materialized and opened, leading back to the Velvet Room.

"I miss him already."

* * *

After a long deliberation, Mitsuru knocked lightly on his door. She hadn't quite known how to go about conversing with him the other day, but now she felt like she could call him… a friend? Would one afternoon make them friends or merely acquaintances? Even though they had a rough start, she'd like to think they got closer. Sending a strained smile back at the guards who had followed her here, she knocked again.

They'd had to go through quite the trouble to get to his "room" as it was all the way in the almost completely abandoned Robotics Department. Ever since all the remaining active ASWs had been destroyed following battles with Shadows on that night, her father halted all production of more ASWs. The only remaining staff members saw after Labrys while the rest had gone to other, less secretive parts of the Kirijo Group.

Two weeks. Though M1N470 did not know it, he had been asleep for two weeks before he woke up and she met him for the first time. During that time she'd awakened to her Persona after entering Tartarus with her father. She'd been the one to insist to go, too. Her father looked so sad when she awoke to her power.

"Excuse me, M1N470?" She asked. The door opened to the metal man, his hair standing up in every direction. Mitsuru suppressed a laugh. She'd never thought she'd witness him having _bedhead_ , of all things.

"Hello, Mitsuru," he said, a slight smile on his face.

' _Something is… different about him,'_ Mitsuru thought, but she waved off the feeling. He was happy to see her and the relief that gave her was tremendous. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he just stared at her like he used to.

"I'm here to escort you to the combat arena," Mitsuru stated as she held out her hand. Hesitating slightly, Minato took her small hand in his and she pulled him along as they headed down the hallway. "I don't want you to get lost. I'm already a grownup so I can lead you around."

Mitsuru puffed out her chest with pride as she led him. Her father had told her to treat him like a subordinate and inspire loyalty in him, but she considered M1N470 to be a person she could treat kinder than that. After all, he admitted to watching those shows! He's a kid!

' _But… If I'm being honest, I am too. But I'm the more experienced one!'_ Mitsuru thought with a fire lit in her eyes.

* * *

He reminded her of herself.

Back when she wasn't called Labrys, back when her name was just a number.

M1N470.

Minato.

His expressions were stilted, but he was very… very human. Most likely he had a larger Plume of Dusk than usual, like she did. He also reminded her of #024. No, in this case, wouldn't she be in #024's position? She was the older sister who could lead and guide him. The thought brought her joy. They could be just like her and #024. They'd be family, brother and sister. Maybe they could find a dog too? Preferably white. Rather than call it Snowy, maybe they could call it Frosty?

Things could be like they used to be.

' _There's so little I know about him. I just met him. We're going to be family forever, so we have time. It's not like we really have lifespans because we can always be fixed,'_ Labrys thought with a grin. She never once considered she was being too fast in calling him family. Just like her, he was lonely. Minato wanted family. He had to. There was no way he didn't. Such a thing was unthinkable.

"The boss decided you'll be accompanying M1N470 and his daughter when they leave for Tatsumi Port Island next month," a scientist told her while she waited outside the combat arena. She couldn't stop her smile. The scientist frowned and sighed, eyes closed.

' _We can just spar today. Talk when we get out of here. Experience the world together. I'll tell him #024's secret wish, the one I inherited, and we'll fulfill it together.'_

"And good riddance. You caused enough trouble last time you were awake," he said under his breath.

With that, the doors opened, and they commenced their sparring session again. Labrys could only teach him through experience in fighting her, so she gave it her all. He seemed more lively today as well. Filled with hope for the future, Labrys raised her axe.

"Alright, come at me, little bro!" She roared as they clashed.

* * *

 **One Intense Sparring Session Later**

* * *

Shuji Ikutsuki always watched.

Mixed in with all the other scientists, he didn't stand out. That was how he preferred it. Unlike other scientists at Yakushima, he never lorded his position over others, nor did he talk much about what exactly it was that he did at Yakushima. His department knew, but the children did not. Takeharu knew, but his child had never even met Ikutsuki.

Safe distance, consistent alibis, and the occasional scapegoat.

It kept him safe. It allowed him to cover up the truth of what happened that night when the Dark Hour was born. When Takeharu's distaste for what his father had become led to him cancelling several projects and firing many scientists after he inherited the head of the Kirijo Group, Ikutsuki still remained. When there was talk of the Nephilim Project being cancelled and the Ergo Division being closed down, Ikutsuki kept both alive. When Takeharu distrusted the one he called "M1N470", Ikutsuki assuaged his concerns.

When M1N470 left the combat arena and bumped into the scientist that Ikutsuki _knew_ had the keys to the children's "private rooms", Ikutsuki saw everything. Saw the boy grab the keys with his inhuman speed and hide them in his scarf as he fell to the ground.

How?

Because Shuji Ikutsuki always watched.

After sending a discreet message through his pager, Ikutsuki took a step forward out of the crowd. The hand he'd been given just now was worth betting on, even if it meant he had to stand out.

* * *

Minato had succeeded in stealing the keys. He'd tripped on his own foot and the heavy, metal man knocked the scientist over. Thankfully, his reaction speed had been enhanced by his fusion to his Persona and he'd been able to grab them as they fell out of the man's coat pocket, covering the theft with his fall. Orpheus had helped a lot with that plan.

Minato pushed himself to his feet, his eyes falling upon a concerned Mitsuru standing next to her father.

 _[If you wish to save the girl, you have to convince him to let you get to the children. Be careful with your words and do not let him know you already know about them.]_ Orpheus advised. But before Minato could take a step towards them, a voice called out.

"Ah, I am terribly sorry that Mr. Yamato got in your way!" Ikutsuki said as he rushed forwards from a crowd of observing scientists. Helping the black-haired scientist to his feet, Ikutsuki added, "Mr. Yamato, you should Yama _go_ for now."

The man, Mr. Yamato, nodded at Ikutsuki, offered his apologies to Minato and left. Turning to face Takeharu, Ikutsuki waved them over with a smile.

"Ikutsuki, what is it that you want?" Takeharu asked as he approached, Mitsuru tagging along behind him with a serious look plastered on her face. Minato had no idea what was going on.

"As an apology for that fall, I would like to show him to my work space, the Ergo Division. I am certain that _they_ would love him there," Ikutsuki explained with a smile. "As you intended to stop by anyway, wouldn't we just make the the greatest little party? The hero, the swordsman, and, while I'd prefer black mage, I am just as fine with white mage."

' _Oh, so that's what's going o— Wait. Am I going to see the kids?'_

 _[Y-Yes. This is quite a fortunate turn of events.]_ Orpheus chimed in.

' _...But the real question is… am I the hero or the swordsman? I've never seen Mr. Kirijo hold a sword.'_ Minato seriously pondered. Orpheus sighed.

 _[And it is certainly not as if you call yourself a hero much either...]_

' _That's not true. I do call myself a hero a lot!'_ Minato confidently answered back, completely missing the sarcasm.

"Father, who is that man?" Mitsuru asked, but Takeharu hushed her with a hand motion.

"Go to your room and study for a bit," he ordered her. "I'll be along shortly with M1N470."

With a nod, she obeyed and left down the hall with a few guards, glancing back once to wave goodbye at Minato. He returned her wave before turning to meet Ikutsuki's eyes.

"I wanted to see your work place anyway," Minato said. Ikutsuki chuckled.

"I'm sure you would. The way I described it made it sound quite interesting, after all," the bespectacled scientist replied.

"Come on. Let's get this inspection over with so I can get back to the paperwork in my office," Takeharu said as he strode forwards, leaving the other two to follow him.

* * *

 **The Ergo Division: The Playroom**

* * *

"He's so cool!'

"I always wanted to meet a robot!"

"Can you fire laser beams out of your eyes?!"

The boys had swarmed him the moment he entered the room while the girls watched him curiously from a distance. It was a funny feeling. They admired him. They thought he was cool. They wanted to be his friend. Everybody liked him. Kids his age, kids younger than him, kids older than him. He didn't have to stick his head in the snow to get them to talk to him. They all did that of their own volition.

But it all felt so hollow.

"Hey. Shake my hand," one kid said, the tired tone of his voice different from all the others. The young boy had dark hair and glasses, just like how Chidori had described him. Reaching up as if to scratch his neck, Minato stealthily took the keys from his scarf and held them in his hand as he shook the boy's hand, leaving the keys with him. The boy smirked and then left the crowd, moving towards a boy with long, blonde hair.

"Awww, no fair! I wanted to shake his hand!"

"Don't you dare think you can touch a robot's hand so easily!"

"BUT CAN YOU FIRE LASER BEAMS OUT OF YOUR EYES?!"

' _Can I?'_

 _[No. You cannot.]_

' _Darn.'_

* * *

"Again, nothing is wrong. Even after your father's death, this division has remained pure to its pursuit of science, lacking any cruel means," Ikutsuki said as he and Takeharu watched the kids excitedly crowd around M1N470. They had ample space in the back of the playroom, sitting at a table meant for the observing scientists. The leader of the Kirijo Group sighed.

"My father used to be a good man. He'd been ambitious, yes, and was often too devoted to his work, but his research into Shadows and the subsequent branching off into Personas had meant to pave the way to a time manipulation device," Takeharu said. "I'm certain you knew that already, but he'd meant to use such a device to undo catastrophes before they started. To save people who normally couldn't be saved. People like my mother."

"But the Shadows changed him," Ikutsuki continued. He knew this story well. "The experiments grew more brutal, more drastic, more dangerous. We still don't quite know what happened on that night, do we? Other than it being Eiichiro Takeba to push everything over the edge and cause the explosion, the details are vague at most."

Takeharu nodded.

"Eiichiro Takeba had been a good man as well. _L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs_. 'Hell is full of good intentions or desires'. I will not fall into that same pit trap. It's already enough that I have my own daughter entwined in my cursed legacy. I have to be vigilant, stop myself if I go too far," he said, looking at Ikutsuki with his one good eye.

"You should be vigilant as well. Not only of yourself, but of the things that go on underneath your nose. I know you aren't the most hands-on director. I've heard what they say, that the Ergo Division is full of 'nutjobs'," Takeharu stated.

"What exactly are you getting at, sir?" Ikutsuki asked, feigning ignorance.

"My point is, Ikutsuki, that you are still on thin ice. If I find slightest evidence that you are abusing the power I have granted you, you're finished as a scientist here. Remember that one of the guards you granted me turned into a Shadow. That side-effect alone should be more than enough reason to fire you."

Ikutsuki drew his mouth into a thin line and then nodded.

"I will admit that, as of late, I'd been more focused on one child in particular. This boy is brilliant, but he's living in an entirely different laboratory from all the others because of it. As such, I'm hardly around this area," Ikutsuki admitted. "I will tighten my leash on my subordinates, continue to remind them they are men of science and that these are children, not guinea pigs. I'll do a purge of the current staff if I find any them to be these rumored 'nutjobs'. We don't want this to turn into the Stanford Prison Experiment, after all."

He pushed his glasses up. "As far as side-effects are concerned, the guard in question had forgotten his suppressant, as I had previously informed you, and we are working to erase both that side-effect as well as the side-effects of the suppressants themselves."

Takeharu kept his gaze ahead, but the slight nod he gave assured he accepted Ikutsuki's answer.

Ikutsuki curled his lips into a smile as he watched M1N470 shake hands with another boy. He stood to leave, straightening out his lab coat as he did so.

"Speaking of prisons, I should be returning to my office," the scientist joked. "We're both very busy men, after all. I hope M1N470 and your daughter have a pleasant time together. You always have spoiled her with toys, after all."

Takeharu chuckled.

"And she keeps saying she's too 'grown-up' for them."

* * *

 **Mitsuru's Room**

* * *

She was too grown up for toys.

At the mature age of seven, Mitsuru had kept this principle clear in her mind. She could not be like other people. She could not be immature. There were expectations she had to live up to. An heiress should be composed. An heiress must be superior in intellect. An heiress must take control of the situation when it is demanded of her. Her tutors taught her that, life had taught her as much. She could not be an embarrassment to her father. As a rare "natural" Persona-user, that pressure to do right for her father had only increased.

' _But…'_

Having somebody she could watch childish shows with, somebody who neither scolded her for her childish or who worshipped her for her father's power made her feel warm. She was not alone. Somebody existed whom she could relate to.

Today was another day of watching anime, of him listening intently as she went on and on about her shows, what types of books she'd particularly enjoyed, what the food in France tasted like.

It was the type of day she wished she had more of. Two Days. That was how long they had known each other. However, she'd have all the time in the world to get to know her new "bodyguard". When she left in a month to go to an actual school for the first time, he and his teacher would come with her. She'd never met this Labrys, but she was sure that the robot girl was nice if she got along with M1N470.

The future looked bright.

* * *

 **Dark Hour: A Scary Room**

* * *

Every night, there was one hour where the all the sound outside her room vanished, one hour where the air tasted foul. Aigis thought she could get used to these types of nights. Quiet time for thinking.

But tonight was different.

"No, no, what are you doi—" A voice outside her room screamed before it was suddenly cut off. Huddled in the corner of room with her hands around her ears and eyes screwed shut, Aigis wished she could leave and run away from all this. Deep within the girl, another girl laughed.

Screams.

Laughter.

More screams.

More laughter.

 _ **[You can't close your eyes and cover your ears. People are dying out there. You'll never know why, but you should not ignore them. Remember their last words... because nobody else will.]**_ Metis said.

Slowly, Aigis opened her eyes, uncovered her ears. Hot tears welled up in her eyes, but they were not just for the scientists. Every time Aigis had made somebody laugh or smile, she felt her place in the world become more and more concrete. People lived by supporting people. Everyone was precious.

What kind of suffering did it take to make somebody want to destroy something like that?

* * *

 **Minato's Room**

* * *

There was a knock on his door in the middle of the night during the Dark Hour, that awoke him. That in itself should have been impossible, but then Minato remembered that Persona-users could move in the Dark Hour. There _would_ be somebody who would come all way to the isolated corner of the lab he lived in on today of all days.

 _{Open up, you shouldn't keep a lady waiting.}_ Chidori's voice echoed in his head.

Smiling lightly, he opened the door. Standing outside with a smirk on her face was a red-haired girl in a white dress. Height-wise she wasn't taller than his stomach, but the way she carried herself made that fact seem trivial. With a hatchet leaning on one shoulder, the little girl with the weapon struck a strong image in his mind.

"Up close, the craftsmanship is really remarkable. It's as if you really _are_ alive," she said as she examined him.

"I am," Minato asserted. That made her chuckle.

"We all think we are," she said.

"You're much meaner in person, Chidori," Minato stated as he crossed his arms. Chidori laughed out loud at that.

"And you're much more boring," she countered. "Your mental voice really doesn't fit either. You sounded much younger." The two locked eyes for a moment, studying the other.

"I don't like red," Minato commented. Just like Mitsuru, her hair was red.

"Red doesn't care what you think, ass. How incredibly petty and shallow must you be to one-sidedly dislike a color?" Chidori fired back. "Especially when your eyes and scarf are of the same color you seem to despise."

Minato paused, touching his hand to his chin thoughtfully.

Then, turning around around, Chidori nodded her head at him. "Come along with me. We could use your artificial muscles and, besides, we owe you our lives. I'll introduce you to my partners."

"Me? Where do you want to go?" Minato asked. It sounded like she already had a plan.

"We'll all see the world out there, live our lives to the fullest for as long as we can. I'm sure that's better than staying here tied down with obligations, responsibilities, being forced to clean up messes you didn't create in the first place," She paused. Sincerity shone in her eyes as she spoke, "They'll use you. Like they tried to use us. You'll be nothing more than a tool. They won't lose any sleep over it either. It's all fine as long as these bastards can justify it for 'the sake of the world'."

Another invitation, just like the one Ikutsuki extended.

' _But this time… it's different. I think now… I think I know what I want,'_ Minato thought as he clenched his fist. Chidori stretched her arms over her head as she waited.

They say all it takes is one moment to change the course of your life forever. We are a collection of such moments, of decisions and the information that allows us to make them. Had Chidori not stretched while waiting for him to make up his mind, he wouldn't have noticed it. No, even if she had later, there might have been a much better excuse for it. But because it was at the very moment he was considering accepting her offer, he couldn't help but notice it.

"Is that… blood?" Minato asked, pointing to the splotch of red on her underarm. She froze.

"Damn it, I told them to check me thoroughly!" Chidori suddenly exclaimed as she hurriedly wiped it away, though a red stain still remained. That observation opened up the gateway to things he'd not even noticed earlier. Traces of sweat on her face, as if she'd been exerting herself, her dressed torn slightly at the bottom, like something crawling on the ground had grabbed at it. Finally, on that hatchet, were very faint streaks of red. More blood.

"Whose blood is that, Chidori?" Minato asked, his eyes narrowing.

Sighing, Chidori met his eyes with hers.

"I suppose there's no point hiding it now, Minato. You might not approve… no, you will. We're similar, aren't we? Hmm. In that case, yes. I did something, Minato," Chidori said as she crossed her arms behind her. Joy suddenly shined in her eyes. "D-Do you want to come and see it?"

With those words, she ran off down the hall. Confused, Minato ran after her, down the twisted corridors, past doors that had been blown open and were barely hanging on their hinges, all the way towards the playroom he'd been in not so long ago. It started low, but as they got closer, Chidori's laughter grew louder and louder.

* * *

 **The Playroom**

* * *

It was hot...

 **Medea.**

So hot, but the flames didn't really hurt, they licked at her ankles. Medea protected her from them, tamed flames with her own witchcraft.

Her cheeks burned with excitement, her heart burned with the both joy and sorrow, and the playroom burned with the flames of her Medea. In this warm place, only _his_ face was cold. He asked her what she did. She laughed and told him, **Medea.**

They said she was broken, so she broke them. Broke them out of the coffins that protected them during the Dark Hour and burned them, one by one. Each and every one she could find in that lab. She would have burned more, but the Dark Hour only lasts so long. Wasn't she a hero, burning the bad guys? They were the same, he and her **and Medea.**

He asked where the children were.

They didn't have any Personas, she said. They couldn't escape, so she and her friends gave them quick deaths. Hatchet for some, shots from a stolen revolver for others. Death was better than a lifetime of torture. She admitted this wasn't the first time she'd killed boys and girls her own age. The first time is how she got her Persona, how she, Takaya, and Jin ended up being the only survivors of the first group.

He asked her why. Why would she do this? Why would she use him for this? He only wanted everyone to be happy. His emotionless voice was suddenly flooded with fear, anger, sadness. She betrayed him. But did she? She did not say she would not kill them. Wouldn't it be common sense that she would? He shook.

She fed off that fear, **Medea.**

* * *

Charred corpses covered the playroom, the toys now nothing more than melted plastic as fire danced along the floors and walls. Electronics did not work in the Dark Hour, so the fire alarm did not go off. It all burned without end.

He remembered the flames that consumed his parents. Chidori told him everything, everything she'd done. He shook.

"I trusted you! It wasn't supposed to be this way! I just wanted to save you! Nobody was supposed to get hurt!" he yelled. She grew really quiet as she stood with her back to the flames.

"You still don't understand what they made us do, do you? People were already hurt. Stress creates a Persona, they say. Torture, emotional strain, guilt, they forced all that upon us. They once brought us a dog. We grew to love that dog. Over months it became the only bright spot in this hellhole. Do you know what happened then?" She asked with painful smile. "They slit its throat in front of us. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. When that didn't work, they made us kill each other. They made us into killers. It's their fault. They _had_ to know that this was coming."

"But… even so… killing more people like that… is wrong," Minato tried to counter. Killing people was wrong. But was killing people who killed people wrong? Wouldn't that make you the same as them? "You have to take responsibility for your actions. I… have to take responsibility for my actions. Even if they did all that, _you_ killed them. It's your fault. It's mine too, for freeing you. For trusting you."

' _My fault. It's my fault my fault my fault my fault people died because of me because I trusted her trusted her trusted her I can make this right. I can make this right. She and I… will take responsibility. I can't let her leave. I can't let her run away.'_

"And who are you to say that, you damned tool?! You don't even know what pain feels like!" Chidori screamed. She clutched her head. "It burns. It's so hot. My head burns, my heart is sweltering." Eyes screwed shut, she yelled, "I'm not wrong to do what I did, am I?! It's just common sense! They called me a witch and a monster so I became one! It's their fault! Always their fault!"

A creature with a skull mask clawed its way into the world in front of her. Blond hair messily poured from that skull and fell onto its torso, a torso as black as the charred bodied behind Chidori, while it's limbs carried the patterns of flames. In one hand it held a knife and, in the other, a goblet filled to the brim with flame.

"Medea, I'm not wrong! Tell him I'm not wrong!"

The twisted Persona, Medea, aimed her goblet at him, flames gushing out as if from a flamethrower. Minato dodged out of the way, sending an Agi spell at Medea, but the Persona gave a distorted laugh as the flame was sucked into its goblet. Fire would not harm it.

"Chidori, calm down! Come with me and we can both apologize when the Dark Hour is over! We can make things right!" He exclaimed.

 _[Poor child. So naive,]_ Orpheus commented.

The monster flew at him, swinging its huge knife in an attempt to decapitate him. Minato raised his arms to block and the force of the blade knocked him into the wall behind him, leaving a gash in his arms. Keeping his arms up in defense, he was surprised when he wasn't attacked again.

"I don't want to have to kill you too! Just stay out of my way! There's no way I'll ever go back!" Chidori yelled as she ran away, down the hall. Minato pushed himself to his feet. He had no weapon, but that didn't matter. Minato was about to give chase when Orpheus interrupted.

 _[Use this,]_ he said. In Minato's hands appeared the golden lyre Orpheus had given him in a dream. _[Personas are conceptual existences brought into reality. Our forms are malleable, changed by different interpretations and human will. As both human and Persona, you alone possess the ability to, say, change the Lyre of Orpheus into the Sword of Orpheus.]_

With a thought, the golden instrument changed shape, becoming a golden version of the great sword he used in combat practice with Labrys. He looked up to where Chidori had run off, the way now blocked with flames she left behind her. Minato remembered the other power he'd been given. The words flowed into him as he willed for the new armor.

' _Armor Change: Pixie.'_

 _[Thus, the interpretation changes once more.]_

* * *

 **The Docks**

* * *

Takaya waited at the docks with Jin. Fortunately, they'd found a boat with the keys in the ignition just left there. They'd already cleared out all the people on the docks who could possibly stop their escape. Once the Dark Hour ended and the boat had power once more, they'd make their escape. All they were waiting on was Chidori, who'd gone to try and convince their "savior" to come with them.

Takaya and Jin knew she used him, like a proper tool. With him on their side and her controlling him, they could have a powerful weapon for fucking up the world in their hands.

"How many pills do we have, Jin?" Takaya asked the dark-haired boy in glasses. He was crouched over the three bags filled with suppressants they'd stolen. Unlike Takaya and Jin, Chidori had kept her Persona hidden, so Takaya and Jin had to share their pills with her in secret. If they didn't take these pills, their Personas would kill them. Chidori refused to accept that fact, but they still made her take her pills.

"A few years worth at least. We'll be able to have a lot of fun," Jin said with a smirk. Smiling a crooked smile, Takaya stared at the forest that led to the docks. It was smoking. Slowly, the forest was burning, the fire spreading unevenly yet quickly. It didn't take a genius to realize Chidori was burning it down.

"I guess negotiations broke down," Takaya observed as he brushed his hand against the stolen revolver at his side. Jin stood up and moved to Takaya's side. It was silly how much the younger boy looked up to him, but Takaya liked the feeling. He was the leader because Jin would never follow Chidori. Decisions were his to make, and he controlled his own life as well as theirs.

Chidori emerged from the forest in a dead sprint. Her Persona releasing a stream of fire behind her as she followed her. Upon reaching the docks, Chidori forced Medea to stop.

"How long until the Dark Hour runs out?!" She asked frantically.

' _Chidori's… panicked? Is he really that scary?'_ Takaya thought.

"Five minutes. You're just in time. How far away is he?" Takaya asked, raising his gun. Jin sighed.

"You can't even control him? You're such a disappointment," Jin said as he pulled a small object out of his pocket. In case an ASW went rampant, the Kirijo were armed with all sorts of weapons. Weapons like the grenade he held in his hand.

Chidori didn't even have time to respond before they heard a high-pitched whine in the distance.

A moment later, something shot out through the flames of the forest.

Its blue body was smooth and slender, curved in some places, reducing air resistance tremendously. Huge, intricately patterned wings carried it forwards, though they did not move. Rather, the wings were mechanical in nature and, through the many holes placed around the outside, shot compressed air. With hair as red as the fire behind it, their "hero" flew towards them brandishing a golden blade.

Jin gulped.

"W-We can take that, right?" he asked.

Takaya didn't know the answer to that question. Instead, he gripped his head as he summoned his Persona. Grotesque. The sleeping, masked man that emerged into the world was covered in thick, red veins that emerged from his back and fused together to create two black wings, looking much like a disgusting helicopter. Chidori summoned Medea as well. Takaya eyed Jin, who was gritting his teeth in frustration.

Without extreme focus, Jin couldn't bring his Persona out. They'd tried to take one of those experimental Evokers, but they were too well-hidden and they couldn't afford to waste time. So, for now, Jin would just rely on the few explosives they grabbed.

And so, the children unleashed their attacks.

* * *

Lighting passed between his wings.

Fire roared as it went past his head.

An explosion rang out behind his feet, gouging out earth but missing him.

Speed, mobility, all things a proper Pixie should have.

 _[It's 3 vs 1. Don't be foolish.]_

' _No choice but to be a fool.'_

The one who shot lightning before now shot wind. It missed all the same.

Another fireball from Chidori. It was too slow.

More explosions, but could he be hit by somebody so inexperienced?

 _[Listen to me! You're only going to cause yourself pain!]_

' _Don't feel pain.'_

No fear, no hesitation, just the need to make things right.

Suddenly, a pillar of ice appeared in front of him. Too fast. He was going too fast.

Can't stop.

Broke the ice, fell to the ground. Crashed.

Fireball.

Can't move.

Explosion.

Can't feel.

Arms:Melting.

Legs:Gone.

She looked sad. Didn't want it to come to this. Others sighed in relief. Boarding boat.

Can't stop them.

Failed.

Failed.

"I have failed."

Chidori=Gone.

His fault=take responsibility.

Result:

Mitsuru=Betrayed

Labrys=Disappointed

Trust=Gone

Trust_in_self=Gone

Parents=Gone

Everything=Gone

Failure=Minato

Solution:take_responsibility

Solution:fulfill_promise

* * *

' _More than anything, I want to find a place for me in the world.'_

 _[That's a very nice wish. You'll have to fight for it. For that, you'll need a weapon. One that can move people's hearts so that there's room for you.]_

* * *

"No room."

Solution:Minato=Gone

* * *

The fighting, the screams, the explosions had roused Takeharu, Mitsuru, Labrys, and even the few guards that had potential. Though the patrolling guards had been slaughtered, the remaining ones and the three that had awoken followed the destruction. The forest and building was in flames, with the latter being solved by an emergency activation of the sprinklers and the usage of fire extinguishers.

The forest, however, was lost to them and they could do nothing to save until the Dark Hour ended and emergency firefighters were called. Moving past that, they found scorched earth, chunks of earth carved out, and M1N470.

He'd taken substantial damage, though they noticed his steel slowly mending itself. Both his arms were solidifying themselves and his legs were regenerating. A terrifying brand of machine, to be sure. Worriedly, Mitsuru ran ahead of the group. Labrys followed her at a respectful distance.

She knelt in front of him, unsure of what to do. She tried putting her hand on his head to check for temperature, before realizing he was a machine that wouldn't have a fever or infection anyways. So, with a bit of hesitation, she asked him.

"Are you okay?"

He didn't even look at her. Didn't stare at her oddly like he'd taken to doing. He just kept looking at the ocean beyond the docks. Any of the liveliness she'd seen previously was gone. Labrys noticed this as she drew closer.

"I am Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon:M1N470. Orders?"

* * *

 **Boat**

* * *

They'd escaped that cursed place. They had a little bit of trouble getting the boat to move, but once they figured it out, Takaya was driving it like a master. They'd been curious why it was left here with the keys in the ignition, but could only chalk it up to their bad luck finally turning good.

 **Then, the ship's phone rang.**

* * *

 **One Month Later**

* * *

Following the incident, M1N470 had claimed full responsibility for allowing the children to leave. Upon discovering that the children had in fact been mistreated, Takeharu Kirijo fired almost all of the Ergo Division, placing no blame on the machine.

Ikutsuki claimed innocence, accounting to the fact that he had not been attentive and had spent most of his time with Sho, the separated experiment boy, and blamed Yamato Igurashi for the mistreatments, which he had ample proof of. As he was still guilty of negligence, Takeharu promptly removed him from Yakushima and placed him as a future teacher of Gekkoukan High, the school to be built where the Tatsumi Port Island lab once was.

Mitsuru Kirijo and Labrys departed with M1N470 for Tatsumi Port Island. None of them spoke to each other. The former human weapon, Aigis, was sent to a proper home following several therapy sessions.

As for the boy, Sho…

It was discovered he had very recently acquired a Persona.

And so, he was given the greatest of care and sent with the trio to Tatsumi Port Island one month later.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Overheat**

* * *

 **A/N: Assuming responsibility for the deaths of the scientists, the boy repays them the only way he can. By becoming what he thinks they want.**

 **Step 1: Destroy his support (parents).**

 **Step 2: He relies on others and himself to move forward.**

 **Step 3: Destroy his trust in others and himself.**

 **Step 4: ?**

 **Step 5: Become the machine. Oh, and profit! (not really though).**

 **Minato's Social Links:**

 **{FROZEN}**

 **Have you ever wished you could stop thinking, just fall into a role where your lines are already written for you? Food for thought. No question this time.**


	5. First Step Forward

**Chapter 5: The First Step**

 **A/N: Beta'd by Erin Carde.**

* * *

"The man of wisdom is never of two minds;

the man of benevolence never worries;

the man of courage is never afraid."

― **Confucius**

* * *

 **Story within a Story (SWS): Sho**

* * *

My world is small.

Four walls, whatever toys and books dad would bring me, and, of course, Dad himself. I love Dad. One by one, I memorize his jokes, the jokes in the books he'd bring me, just so I can one day see him smile.

He doesn't smile a lot anymore.

If I go to the farthest back I can remember, he used to smile a lot. He smiled all the time, even when he wasn't happy. But I love him. I wish he would come visit soon. I have a good one for him. Two guys walk into a bar. The third one ducks.

 **Our world is small.**

 **This room is just a small part of something bigger. I know it. That man has to come from somewhere. The toys come from somewhere. The jokes tell of places we've never been. Places we could go.**

 **I will protect Sho, no matter what.**

 **When I awoke, I was already a part of him. I've seen his memories. The experiments, the pain he can't seem to remember, that lying smile. I wish his "father" would come visit soon. For the suffering Sho forgets... if he tries to hurt Sho again… I'll kill him.**

The name's Sho!

 **I am Minazuki.**

* * *

In one corner sat a small toilet, an operating table in the other that could be readjusted to incline to any angle in another, and there, sitting on the floor in the center of this isolated place, amongst a pile of action figures and joke books, was a boy with red hair. His back turned to them, he read the pages of his book aloud with joy dancing in his voice.

"What animal has more lives than a cat?"

The black-suited Kirijo guards crowded at the doorway didn't know how to respond.

"A frog! They croak every night! Come on, you should be able to get that much," he said to himself.

Pushing through the guards, Takeharu Kirijo moved to stand in front of them, only a few feet behind the boy.

"What did one lion ask the other lion after they ate some clowns?"

Takeharu held his hand out, holding the guards back as he observed the boy.

"Does this taste funny to you? Ha! See, I could feel you smile at that one!" The boy laughed as he dropped the book and held his head, still laughing. Laughter turned to a slight cry of pain, before it abruptly ended. Chuckling, he grabbed his book and threw it at the wall he faced.

"Why did the little chicken cross the road?" The boy asked the empty air. This time, Takeharu stepped forward and placed his hand on the boy's lonely shoulder as he sat beside him.

"To get to the other side," Takeharu Kirijo answered with a false smile. He'd long since forgotten how to offer a genuine one, even to those who needed one the most. The boy turned his head, his eyes widening to take in the face he'd never seen before. His bright smile he'd had on faded in an instant, the light in his eyes giving way to something darker..

"You're wrong, Mr. Eyepatch," the boy said, "It was to meet his father. What did you do to his father?"

Not even taken aback by this strange behavior, Takeharu answered, "He's going to become a teacher at a school we're building. Would you like to go to that school, Sho?"

The boy grinned, and, for a moment, Takeharu saw in that boy's smile his own expression. Falseness.

Takeharu suppressed a shudder.

* * *

 **Kirijo Estate: February 17th, 2000 (Two Months Later)**

* * *

On a sunny Sunday in February, a black sedan pulled up to the gates of one of the many manors owned by Takeharu Kirijo. Brick and steel formed this manor's foundations, one of the only Western mansions in the outskirts of Iwatodai City. Though other homes attempted to match it, the Kirijo Estate towered above them by at least two floors and extended out further than any other. The front garden seemed welcoming with its fountain and tall hedges, the black gates and guards posted in front promised a swift retribution to any who trespassed.

After the guards identified the driver of the sedan, the front gates shuddered as they slid away, allowing the vehicle entrance. Passing various gardeners and the occasional butler, the sedan stopped in front of the stairs that led to the intricately patterned French doors. Waiting patiently for the sedan was a girl with silver hair and red eyes wearing a white dress. If one were to look closer, the girl kept occasionally tugging at the dress and frowning slightly.

The greying chauffeur of the vehicle stepped out and moved to hold open the backseat door of the sedan, but…

"This place is huge!" Screamed Sho as he jumped out the rolled down window of the car. Tumbling against the stone-paved ground, he sprang to his feet and ran halfway up the stairs before stopping to stare at the mansion with wide eyes. Labrys took a step towards him and Sho immediately bowed towards her before going back to stare at the mansion. With a hand signal, Labrys motioned for the concerned chauffeur to just leave. She had this under control.

"Whatcha doin', kid?" She asked warmly.

Without looking at her, he replied, "My dad always said to watch your manors."

"What does that hafta do with you starin' at the house?" Labrys asked, the pun flying right by her. Sho froze, turned and looked at her.

"I always knew this day would come," he whispered. He shook, balling his small hands up into fists and assuming a fighting stance. Then, shouting, he declared, "I've finally met my archnemesis!" His eyes seemed to sharpen as he pointed at her. "Mark my words. You will be made to laugh at my Sho until your demise."

Labrys, not even slightly threatened by the little kid who couldn't be older than six, crossed her arms and raised her head slightly, playing as the condescending villain.

"I don't understand, but… Bring it, kid." Then, smiling, she added, "But first, let's get you inside."

* * *

The world was big, filled with fantastic, unbelievable things.

In the month following his first steps outside his room, Sho had learned that. Since they discovered he had a Persona, the Kirijo Group took care of him during that month, slowly acclimating him to the outside world. The salty taste of the sea air, the warmth of the sun, the sensation of grass beneath his bare feet, all of these things had been introduced to him. He rode in a car for the first time as well. Saw things he'd only seen in picture books before, like the girl (ARCHNEMESIS) who was leading him into this mansion.

The circular entranceway swallowed them whole in its enormity, the stone floor engraved with the large kanji for "Kirijo" in the center and a staircase in one corner of the entranceway lead up to the second floor. Various maids and butlers scuttled about their work, dusting and polishing the various pieces of art hanging along the wall and the vases placed upon their own pedestals. Even though this wasn't the primary estate, it had to hold up the Kirijo name.

"My name's Labrys, Sho," the girl introduced herself. Of course, she'd already been informed of his circumstances. "I'm an ASW and will be escortin' you and Lady Kirijo when you guys are big enough to go into Tartarus and fight Shadows. I know ya don't got any family 'side from your dad, so you'll be properly taken care of here by some caretaker the Kirijo hired. If ya follow me, I'll take ya to your room."

"And I'm Sho!" He declared as he pointed his finger to himself with a cocky grin. "I'd be a cook, but I have no thyme for that!"

Labrys tilted her head.

"I don't get why'd ya bring up cookin', but whatever. Follow me," Labrys said as she turned and ascended the stairs. Sho's eyes burned with rage as he followed his ARCHNEMESIS.

Through red-rugged hallways they walked, passing by the occasional painting or flower-filled vase. They ascended the stairs once, and Labrys told them they were quickly approaching his room in the gigantic place when he heard a shout.

"Fine! If you don't want to even talk, then you can just sit here and rust!"

The large wooden door they were passing by suddenly swung open and out stomped a young girl, her red hair a far darker shade than Sho's. Upon seeing Labrys and Sho staring at her, the girl's face froze over, turning from tightly drawn brows to a peaceful, perhaps even relaxed expression.

"My apologies. The fellow in there is rather stubborn. I am Mitsuru Kirijo, heiress of the Kirijo Group. You must be Sho. I look forward to working with you," she said as she bowed slightly. Sho looked away from the slightly older girl and scratched the cross-shaped scar on his face.

"Nah, it's cool. Let's work together from now on," he replied with a shaking thumbs up.

"Then, if you'll excuse me, I have a studying session to go to," Mitsuru said with a gentle smile. Sho stepped aside and held one arm out, presenting the hallway to her. She let out a slight giggle as she walked past him and down the hall. Before she vanished around a corner she added, "Do what you must, Labrys. You have my full support." Labrys whistled.

"That girl can switch gears quicker than me," she muttered under her breath. Recomposing herself, she turned to Sho.

"Now, how about we continue?"

* * *

After escorting Sho to his quarters, Labrys entered _his_ room, meekly closing the door behind her. He could have asked for any furnishings he wanted, but Minato refused to say anything. The only thing in his room aside from the window he so intently stared out of, was the bed that supported his weight. He held a golden lyre, strumming it softly, absentmindedly. Even behind his mostly expressionless face, Labrys could feel some sort of life usually.

But now…

"Don't even care to look at me?" Labrys asked as she took a step closer. As expected, he didn't look like he was paying any attention to her presence. "I get it. You feel guilty. You have regrets. You made a mistake and people died 'cuz of it. From what ya said, I'm goin' to guess that's not the first time you've seen death."

No response.

"Well, I've given ya a few months to see if ya could talk to Mitsuru and me, if ya would rely on us. Now, I think I've waited long enough."

She sighed. If she'd not received #024's wish and last words, would she have ended up like him? No, maybe a part of her was like that and she just couldn't… acknowledge it. Either way, him being quiet like this was pissing her off!

"Don't you remember what I told ya?! Grit your teeth and start livin' now!"

 **BANG!**

A sound like a shot rang out as her fist smashed right into his head, sending him straight through the wood and plastered wall and into the open air. Her right arm shot out of its socket after him, connected to him by a chain. Grabbing onto his leg, she pulled him back toward her, left arm cocked and ready for another blow. As he flew back towards her, she saw it.

He didn't take her hit once her arm returned, instead he brandished a golden broadsword and swung it at her. With a well-calculated dodge, Labrys slipped past his strike and let go of his leg. He soared past her, righting himself in the air to land on his feet. His expression was blank now, but she'd seen it. The spark of self-preservation, of the will to live.

"You betrayed the Kirijo Group, but they're a buncha assholes anyway. They brought that upon themselves. You failed to stop the kids, and you were the one to let them go. But you had no control over their choices," Labrys said. "If ya wanna make it up to everybody, then do it properly! All you're doing right now is pissing me _and_ Mitsuru off!"

With those words, Minato finally made eye contact with her.

"If ya hate yourself," Labrys said, "Then you should disappear. That's what ya thought, right? You thought you were no good for anybody, that you'd only cause more trouble. Well, let me tell ya something."

She walked up to him and raised her hand. He visibly flinched, expecting another hit. Smiling, she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm makin' ya a part of my family whether ya like it or not. Not just 'cuz I want to, but 'cuz I think ya need somebody like me to smack ya around when ya get a dumb idea like this in your head. There's only us two left, so we gotta take care of each other. If ya got tricked, get smarter. If you're too weak, get stronger. But don't ya ever think ya don't matter. Don't try to disappear. That's the height of arrogance. Think about others like ya usually do, will ya?"

Labrys had to turn away from him. Upon bringing her fingers to her eyes, she discovered they were wet.

' _I guess I'm a hypocrite, aren't I? Talkin' about thinkin' of others when I need you for my own sake.'_

He bowed his head, saying nothing. She waited for a few moments, but he refused to speak.

Sighing and wiping her eyes, Labrys moved past him.

"Just... think about what I said, will ya?"

And she slammed the door behind her when she left.

* * *

"100,000,000 yen," were the words Labrys first heard upon leaving. Turning, she found Mitsuru by the side of the door, leaning against it with arms crossed and eyes closed.

"That sounded like 100,000,000 yen worth of property damage," Mitsuru said as she opened her eyes. "I'll be expecting it to be repaid properly."

Labrys paled. Wasn't that number way too high?!

"I-I thought ya had to stud—"

"I lied. Today's Sunday. One can't properly study when certain… televised events are on." Mitsuru said, stopping in her words with a tense face momentarily before continuing. Labrys put her hands behind her back.

"I did my best. The rest is up to hi—"

"Sssh!" Mitsuru suddenly shushed her.

"Would ya stop interruptin' m—!"

She got shushed again.

"Please, listen," Mitsuru said suddenly before putting her ear to the door. "There's music."

* * *

Alone, Minato looked at his gloved hand.

He tried to clench his hand into a fist, but couldn't. The feeling died before he could understand it.

Labrys was wrong. Minato didn't hate himself. He didn't _want_ to disappear. He _had_ to. As he searched further within himself for the reason why he was acting this way, he found that cold knife that kept stabbing into his heart. The more he examined it, the more he understood its edges, the individual grooves along the blade.

' _The world is big and scary. If you're not strong enough, smart enough, good enough with people… you lose. Game over, no resetting. If I mess up again, it won't be scientists who die. It'll be Mitsuru and Labrys. They'll die like Mom and Dad and I'll be left alone again. I can't be a kid. I can't be me. If I am, then I'll lose. Because I am weak.'_

" _If you're too weak, get stronger."_

' _I don't know how, Labrys. It's easy to say that.'_

" _But don't ya ever think ya don't matter. Don't try to disappear. That's the height of arrogance. Think about others like ya usually do, will ya?"_

' _I am thinking about others. Even if we become good friends, none of that matters if I can't protect anyone.'_

' _Weak, weak, weak. A hero saves everyone. I can't do that.'_

' _I'm scared.'_

' _I can't be a hero if I want somebody to save me.'_

 _[You aren't weak.]_ Orpheus interrupted. Minato's eyes widened. At that point, he noticed his lyre, left on the ground after Labrys had hit him.

 _[In order to live, you wished to defy fate. To make the impossible become possible. That is why you are standing here today. Have you already forgotten how much you desired life?!]_

Minato shook. He had desired that, hadn't he? The him at that time… Didn't he want to prove to the world that he had the right to exist in it? Protect people? Didn't he want to be a hero like that girl? Did that girl protect everyone?! He wanted strength! The power to move forward in a world that wanted to crush him! Minato grasped the lyre. Something hot was bubbling inside him. That blade, that fear that stabbed his heart was still there, but now...

 _[I know you are scared of what's to come, but don't you understand? Courage doesn't come from nothing. It's from facing fear and overcoming it. Even after Mom and Dad died, we tried to connect to others. When the world lost all color, we fought to see it once more, in our own way. Even now, the colors we've started to see are fading. Fight, Minato, in the only way a Fool can!]_

' _Thou art I and I am thou...right?'_

Like Orpheus said, this lyre was a tool to move people's hearts. Right now, the only heart he had to move was his own.

He played a song. Any musician worth their salt would know that the song was clumsy. The notes at times jumbled together, his metal fingers too thick and heavy to properly move. Still, the song moved on, slow paced and trodding. High notes flowed to low, low to high and back again. At times he'd get more confident and speed up, only to lose that confidence just as quickly and slow down.

Despite the faults, despite his failing confidence, he continued on.

He put everything into the strings of the lyre. Minato didn't feel most things. He didn't feel pain, or cold. Yet warmth spread within him, bursting into flames that heated his core. Slowly, ever so slowly, those flames inside him rose up, licking at the heels of the dread dwelling within him, melting the blade in his heart ever so slightly.

The song built to a crescendo but, before it could reach its highest point, it suddenly ended.

After ten long minutes of playing, he had fallen to his knees. Slowly, two of the white strands of hair on his head regained its color, becoming blue once more.

The door opened. Mitsuru and Labrys entered the room cautiously, not sure what exactly was going on with him. Rising to his feet to face them, Minato didn't know what sort of expression to make.

"What was that? Did you play that?" Mitsuru asked as she walked towards him. Minato looked down at the lyre, one corner of his lips upturned.

' _I think I get it now.'_

"I'm a terrible machine. I can't play music precisely," he stated. "I'm a bad hero. I can't save everyone and only make people worry, but…"

' _Even if it's scary, even if I feel awful... the hero moves forward.'_

He raised his head.

"How about, for right now, I start with just being a friend to the both of you?"

 _[The Fool fights by opening their heart and opening the hearts of others. We're only truly as strong as the ones who will stand by us.]_

" _Through the flames of life, thy bonds thaw. Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Star Arcana."_

" _Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Empress Arcana."_

" _Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fortune Arcana."_

"From what I've seen," Mitsuru said with a chuckle, "Friends cover each other's weaknesses. How about we start with that?"

Labrys sighed.

"You got that from watchin' anime earlier, didn't ya?" The machine girl muttered under her breath. "Anyway, looks like you and I have some more training to do!" Labrys shouted with stars in her eyes.

" _After_ he and I catch up on Piru!" Mitsuru interrupted.

"Just one more thing," Minato said. "I'm sorry."

Mitsuru crossed her arms, looking annoyed.

"Haven't you figured it out yet that I've already forgiven you?"

' _I really am an idiot,'_ Minato thought as he dropped his head into hands.

 _[So get smarter, fool.]_

* * *

Outside the door, Sho grinned. It was just like one of the comic books he'd read!

' _ **Let us stay out of their way. You are only here to meet with your father again, aren't you?'**_ Minazuki said.

' _Ooh! Let's make it a game! I wonder how long I can live in this place without that robot ever seeing me! Scanners? More like scammers! Get it? Because he'll never find me with them!'_ Sho snickered.

Minazuki sighed.

Of course it would come to this.

Sho ran out into the hall and immediately tripped, slamming his face into the floor. As he pushed himself to his feet while cursing, he heard those words he didn't want to hear at all.

"Who is this?" Minato asked. Damn it. Plan ruined.

"A kid from Yakushima. His name's Sho and he makes bad jokes, so just ignore them," Labrys said.

"So you were doing that on purpose?!" Sho shouted as he pushed himself to his feet. Labrys stuck her tongue out at him.

"Will you be my friend too?" Minato asked as he extended his hand.

' _Shake hands with a robot I get to shake hands with a robot shake hands with a robot he's a little angsty but he's a robot so it's still cool, right?'_

' _ **You seem excited.'**_

' _The only seam I have is on my clothes!'_

"Sure, I guess," Sho said as he shook Minato's hand.

' _Nailed it. I looked so cool.'_

' _ **Needs something more.'**_

"Just keep your bitches in check," Sho said with a smile as broke off the handshake.

' _How about that! I used one of those lines from Dad's secret book that fell out of his pocket! So cool!'_

' _ **You poor idiot.'**_

Sweat trickled down Sho's back as murderous intent quickly filled the hall. Mitsuru and Labrys walked around Minato. Each placed a hand on his shoulder with smiles wide enough to split their faces.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Labrys said with a smile.

"Do you want an Execution?" Mitsuru continued coldly.

' _ **I can resolve this. Let us switch.'**_

"I mean it as a compliment," Minazuki said, now in control of Sho's body.

This day would later go down in history as the first day Mitsuru had invented her Execution method.

* * *

 **Mizuki Orphanage**

* * *

Akihiko Sanada didn't quite know what to expect from the new kid. After the fire at their last orphanage, after they lost his sister Miki, he and Shinji had been put here. The two of them blamed themselves and, pursuing strength, Akihiko had been working out. Even though he was still young, he ran laps around the grounds, sometimes joined by Shinji. The other kids stayed away from them. Aki and Shinji didn't play like everyone else did.

Yet…

"Do you want to play?" The new girl asked.

Blonde hair and blue eyes… She looked like a foreigner. Maybe she was half. Either way, Akihiko refused her. Their orphanage was a small, wooden building, but it was brightly lit and freshly painted white. A park built by volunteers was just outside, and the amount of land they could play in was not small. There was even a pond out back. Yet, despite it being such a happy place, Aki and Shinji didn't play. Not anymore.

"Go away," Shinji said with a frown. It was breakfast time and he was very much concerned with his food, picking it apart to see what it made it so good. The kitchen was loud with kids shouting, their plastic table rocking and shaking as the adults tried to calm down the overexcited kids.

Disregarding his words, the new girl sat right across from the two boys with her plate. Akihiko put his chin on his fist and watched as she poked holes in her toast. Raising the toast in front of her face, he saw she'd made it into a mask, her blue eyes shining through crude toast-holes.

"I am the masked villain, Toast-Face! Give me your smiles or else!" The girl declared, crossing one arm while the other held the toast up.

Silence filled with distance between the boys and the toast-faced girl.

' _She's so…'_

"Tch. I said go away," Shinji said as he looked away from her. She turned her toast-covered face to Akihiko and tilted her head.

"Could I at least take _your_ smile?" She asked, a certain loneliness in her voice.

He couldn't help it. Akihiko couldn't stop it. So out of nowhere, so dumb, so familiar.

A smile cracked his mask open, a chuckle shook the rust off his vocal chords.

"Take it. You'll put it to better use than me," Akihiko answered with a smile. The girl gasped with delight as the toast fell from her face, leaving streaks of butter on her face. Shinji, seeing Akihiko smile, grinned. Hurriedly wiping the butter off her face with her sleeve, she extended a hand to him.

"My name is Aigis and I like to make people laugh, so will you be my friends?" She asked innocently. Aki made eye contact with Shinji. They nodded, understanding just what this meant.

Miki was gone. They'd lost a sister, but, maybe…

He grabbed her hand. Not like how a man grabs another man's hand, but like Miki told him he was supposed to when he shook hands with girls. Delicately.

"Aki. This is my friend, Shinji. I think we'd like to be friends with someone like you," Akihiko said.

Maybe it was cruel, using somebody else to plug the hole in his heart. Maybe that was just the way people were.

It wouldn't be until years later that Akihiko Sanada would fully realize the gravity of what exactly he was doing.

* * *

 **Ikutsuki's Apartment**

* * *

Shuji Ikutsuki sat alone in his cramped room, still having not fully unpacked. The only thing he did unpack was his computer which he now gave all his attention to.

The message on his screen he'd yet to finish writing read as such:

' _Formation of Strega Attack Force is operating smoothly. Children are learning and adapting quickly. All but one are fully embracing Nyx. That one, however, will stay loyal due to ties to her teammates._

 _Experiments regarding the data you sent me are slow-going. Are you sure such a thing is even possible?'_

He sighed.

There was still much work to be done…

Until the evil of man was wiped clean.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Sorry for the wait. Aside from a death in the family (way to drop that bomb casually), found out some lore and whatnot from the Persona 3 Club Book which also had me have to rework some details. Some of those lore details, unfortunately, are unable to match up with this story, but finding out the true nature of Nyx and Shadows was really cool and a lot of those details gave me a deeper understanding of the world and made some things I invented in the original able to have more logical explanations.**

 **Some of you might argue that Aigis ending up in the same orphanage as Aki and Shinji is bullshit and you're not exactly wrong, but this isn't actually the first orphanage she ended up. Besides, to end up in the Iwatodai City area like they do, their orphanage would have to be relatively close. I can't imagine the Kirijo Group sending her too far away considering what she is and I doubt there's many orphanages on the outskirts of Iwatodai. I plan to explain this in subsequent chapters in-story, but want to put this here just to inform people ahead of time.**

 **Question of the Chapter: Anybody have any Persona themed puns?**


	6. Seeds

**Chapter 6: Seeds**

 **A/N: This delayed chapter brought to you by holidays, family drama and me rewriting this chapter a few times.**

 **Beta'd by Erin Carde**

* * *

 **SWS: ?!**

* * *

There's a certain beauty to machinery that not many can appreciate. The pungent smell of grease and oil, the sound of gears grinding against gears. Pure metal stains the air with its taste, rising through your nose… truly intoxicating. Various textures and grooves that cause you to lose yourself amongst the beauty in their creation.

I exist in such machinery, fixing the broken gears, reconnecting the blood vessels known as wires, mending the busted fuses. Once, I'd not known its coldness, nor fully understood the nature of what it meant to be much more than a man.

To be truly superior.

However, even machines are flawed. Even machines will break down just like men. For the imperfect can only create imperfect works. Though we strive for perfection, it shall always be out of reach. We were born flawed and shall die flawed. I know I have not attained perfection.

But _he_ has.

An eternal form, lacking the need for external energy. A self-perpetuating machine. He is superior. Compared to him, we are just like the machines we make. A flawed creation breathed life into by a flawed creator…

He will be mine to control.

* * *

 **Dark Hour**

* * *

The night after Labrys and Orpheus had talked some sense into him, Minato could only stare at the wall from his bed, even during the Dark Hour. Flower-print wallpaper. Each flower bloomed and from it emerged the stem of another flower, extending for eternity. Life continued on, the cogs kept turning. The boy let out a sigh. Through the gaping hole in the wall Labrys left, the green waxing gibbous moon was clearly visible.

' _Even if they don't blame me, it doesn't change what happened.'_

A hero always moves forward, a machine continues to run, but a person stumbles, learns, then corrects himself.

Suddenly, there was a knock on his door.

"May I come in?" The familiar voice said. Confused and curious as to why this person would be here at this hour, Minato assented.

At the door was Ikutsuki, the man he'd met back at Yakushima. The man's smile widened and he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want?" Minato asked, sitting up from his bed. Ikutsuki chuckled.

"Don't worry. It's not like I could hurt you if I wanted," he said with his palms raised up. "I just wish to talk. I've heard you've got your motivation back, hmm?" Minato remained silent. Ikutsuki's eyes smiled. "In that case, I've two things to speak with you about. The first: a question. A simple one, really. Think of it as… a test. Why did you agree to fight?"

Minato crossed his arms.

"Because I'm a hero," he answered honestly.

"Indeed," Ikutsuki said as he stroked his chin. Leaning in close, he whispered, "Do you want to know a secret? The reason why the Dark Hour exists, why Shadows exist… it's all the fault of man." He walked over to the hole and stood on the edge, staring at the moon. "The world wants to die. Our Kirijo Group had an experiment that kickstarted the Dark Hour, but all it really did was accelerate the process. If man wanted to live, if everyone was their own hero, then it would have never gone this far. Our death wish is only slowly being granted."

' _The Kirijo Group was behind this…? The will to die is that's what's causing the Dark Hour?'_

"What do you mean?" Minato asked as he stood. Ikutsuki's glasses glinted green.

"You're not a hero. If you continue down your path, you'll be nothing but a glorified janitor for the Kirijo Group. No, for the world. I'm merely making sure that this path is the one you desire. People are awful, cruel creatures, young man. They'll drag you down into their filth," Ikutsuki said seriously. "The approach you're choosing to save them may be… incorrect."

Minato's eyes fell to the ground.

"They won't drag me down," he asserted softly. Lifting his eyes, he declared, "I'll raise them up. People are stronger than you think. If they forget that, then all you have to do is remind them of that." Trailing off, he added under his breath, "Like I was reminded."

Ikutsuki sighed.

"You trust them, do you?" He turned around, back facing Minato. "It's a shame they don't trust you in return. Tell me, why do you think Takeharu Kirijo would assign a random machine he didn't know the maker of to protect his only child? What kind of fool would he have to be to trust you, especially after the incident with the children? Do you honestly think he believes your spiel about being a hero?"

Minato paused.

...It was because Mitsuru's dad was nice, right?

' _No, it doesn't make sense. Not when he puts it like that.'_

"He values your power, child, but nothing more. There's more than one reason why he sent Labrys with you," Ikutsuki said as he moved towards the wall opposite Minato. "Should anything go wrong…" Turning around and leaning back on the wallpaper, he slid his finger across his neck. "She's your executioner. Though I doubt she's consciously aware of it."

Minato fell silent. Part of him knew he should be cautious, that he shouldn't trust this man no matter what, but everything Ikutsuki said made sense.

' _But it was the same with Chidori, wasn't it?'_

"Why should I believe all of this?" Minato asked emotionlessly. He locked eyes with Ikutsuki and the corner of the man's lips twitched. "What evidence do you have? Why should I trust you?"

Ikutsuki chuckled, a smile blooming on his face.

"I suppose this means you pass," his glasses glinted, "Doubt and uncertainty were things I'd begun to think you were incapable of. Those eyes you're using to try to see through me are far better than the glazed over eyes obsessed with heroism." He stepped towards Minato. "' _Vincit omnia veritas_.' Truth conquers all. Answers are hard to come by. Use those eyes of yours to find them, else you'll be tricked and taken advantage of."

' _I want to trust Mitsuru and Labrys.'_

 _[You don't want to be used again.]_

' _I want to trust the Kirijo Group.'_

 _[But how much do you really know about them?]_

' _I want to be a hero.'_

 _[Do you fully understand the meaning of that word?]_

Minato shook his head.

' _I will be a hero for them.'_

Ikutsuki walked over to Minato, sat to the left of him on the bed, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Minato's eyes were focused on the white bed sheets, his mind oddly calm.

"One final question while you still have those eyes. Without mentioning being a hero, what meaning do you see in life as we know it?"

 _[If you aren't a hero, then what will you be? What purpose will your existence have? What reason will there be for your body to be like this? What did your parents die for?]_

"...I don't know," Minato answered. His eyes hardened. "Really… I don't know… don't know… don't… know..."

Ikutsuki's eyes smiled.

" _Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Devil Arcana."_

Standing up, Ikutsuki said, "My offer from earlier is still open." Minato blankly stared ahead, the previous question still occupying his mind. Ikutsuki continued, "Now, as for the second matter, it concerns my son, Sho."

"What." Minato deadpanned, snapped out of his trance.

"Please keep my son safe, young man. I leave his delicate little head in your care," Ikutsuki said with a frightening grin as he left, closing the door behind him.

After a brief silence, Minato nodded his head once, grabbed his lyre, and went to the hole in the wall. Jumping out, he switched his armor to Pixie and flew out into the open air.

 _[The idea currently in your head? Not a good one. Turn back around right now.]_ Orpheus said.

He didn't listen.

* * *

 **Tartarus**

* * *

The lobby of the giant tower was checkered in blue and white, bathed in a heavenly light from above. Between the checkered tiling was a white, marble path with gold outlining it. At the end of that path lay a giant, blue staircase that led to a golden clockface supported by marble pillars with a door in its center. Surrounding the corners of the lobby where yet more marble pillars, reaching high into the ceiling.

This was Minato's first time entering this place.

Before he could climb the stairs, he noticed one other thing: a blue door off to the side that radiated warmth. Moving towards it, he noticed one other thing. Oddly enough, the door had multiple locks and chains around it. Unable to solve its mysteries, Minato shrugged and went back to the stairs.

He had work to do.

* * *

 **1st Floor**

* * *

While the lobby was bright and radiated safety, the floor above was dimly lit. The faint light that came from the green-stained windows walls of the hallway barely lit up the way forward and it only took Minato a few steps on the checkered floor before he saw them.

Undulating, black puddles with sorrowful blue faces, hands clawing out emptily towards the air. Shadows.

' _I've heard so much about them, but this'll be the first time, huh?'_ He thought with a grimace.

 _[Yes, so turn back. Come back with the others when they're older. Shadows are terrifying creatures. Right now they have something you desperately lack: numbers]_ Orpheus said.

Ignoring his Persona's words, Minato narrowed his eyes. Turning his lyre into a greatsword, he dashed forwards and sliced through the two of them in a single swing. A third popped up, only to be destroyed by a quickly cast Agi. The black substance that made the monsters had been splattered across his golden blade as their bodies dissipated into a black gas.

The fight didn't even last three seconds.

Until this point he'd only ever lost, the one real victory he had was a surprise attack against Labrys. He'd lost to Chidori. Had been unable to stop them from going. In sparring, Labrys was far more skilled than him and managed to defeat him even when he was allowed to use his Persona powers. Simply put, Minato had gotten used to losing.

But now...

' _What are you so scared for?'_ He prodded, but Orpheus didn't answer.

Moving to the next group of puddles, he defeated them with equal ease, and the next group and the group after that. They couldn't stop him. They were the powerless ones. Sometimes the Shadows attacked him with pillars of ice that shot up from the ground, but he smashed the pillars with his metal fist.

Something began to crawl up his throat.

A humorless laugh.

* * *

 **2nd Floor**

* * *

A Shadow fell from the ceiling and he used a low angled Agi to launch himself in the air, the fireball exploded on impact with the floor. His fist tore through the Shadow's mask and killed it, the body being propelled back into the ceiling and splattering all over it.

He had to train for this?

They were so weak.

He could stomp the puddles, not even needing to use his weapon.

Until the floor was clear, he didn't stop.

He was doing something.

He was helping.

He was being a hero.

Hell, maybe he could even clear Tartarus tonight?

* * *

 **3rd Floor**

* * *

He hit a wall.

The staircase was blocked by a golden wall of light that wouldn't part no matter what he did, so turned around and proceed to go look for more Shadows. Equipping his Pixie Armor he speedily flew through the maze-like hallways. There had been a few treasure chests, but he'd only found medicine in them. Perhaps the wall would disappear if he destroyed every Shadow? Maybe there was a lever he needed to pull?

Chains rattled in the distance.

Suddenly he stopped, tilting his head.

' _Is that the clue on how to go higher?'_ Curious, Minato flew towards the sound of rattling chains. The rattling itself was slow and quiet, as if the chains were moved by a slight breeze.

 _[Turn back!]_ Orpheus suddenly shouted in his head, but at this point Minato had long tuned out the voice that told him to back away. Nevertheless, Orpheus kept futilely shouting warnings.

As he drew closer, he began to see it. Nearly twice the size of him, floating in mid-air, was a being wielding two long-barreled revolvers. Its face was shrouded in bandages, with only one ominous eye that stared emptily at the ground. Two long steel chains ran from its left and right shoulders, forming a cross. The body below the head was cloaked completely in black, as if it was mourning.

Compared to the puddles and occasional hand-shaped Shadow, this monster was leagues above them… yet Minato needed to climb higher.

He took a step forward. Orpheus, who had been shouting, suddenly grew quiet as he approached the floating monster. The Shadow didn't react. Just stared aimlessly and floated silently. Was it dead? He moved below it, looked at it right in the eye. No response. While floating, its chains slightly swayed, creating the quiet rattling he'd heard earlier.

' _This… what is this thing?'_

Minato reached out and lightly, ever so lightly, he poked the Shadow.

A golden light suddenly shined in its eye as the Shadow threw its head back and let loose a shriek that would have torn an ordinary person's eardrums apart. Surprised, Minato swung his sword at the monster. His sword bounced off, as if he'd swung it at a wall of stone. The Shadow's shriek grew deeper, developing into a roar before it raised its guns, its singular eye focused on Minato.

' _Uh oh.'_

Switching to Pixie, Minato aimed his wings toward his front, using the compressed air his wings shot out to send him flying backward. He saw the gun emit a blinding light before the spot where he'd previously been standing vanished in an explosion of flames. Turning around in midair, he got a bad feeling and suddenly flew left, down a corridor. Behind him, a glacial spear the size of his body raced by.

' _Orpheus! Orpheus, help!'_

 _[The stairs! Go to the stairs! The Reaper can't follow you there!]_ Orpheus yelled. The Reaper? Turning back to the task at hand, Minato nodded as the Reaper followed him down the corridor, both guns aimed at his back. Racing forwards, he saw another puddle-like Shadow about to drop from the ceiling. Accelerating as much as he could, he raced under it as it tried to fall on him, ending up behind him. With the flat of his sword, he batted the Shadow at the Reaper.

To his surprise, the Reaper turned all its attention to the incoming Shadow and fired both guns at it. Black blood splattered over the walls and ceiling and, briefly, the monster grew still before its eye found Minato again.

' _Wait! The stairs have a barrier in the way!'_ He thought in a moment of realization. In that instant, as he turned the corner to see the blocked stairway, a shot rang out. A supersonic flame collided with his lower body, tore through it, and broke the wall behind him, creating an opening to the outside. Spinning from the impact, the upper body of Minato flew out the opening. Since he'd only been three floors up, the metal boy could only briefly observe the rushing wind around him before he hit the ground.

Legless, he lied on his back, staring at the great tower and the Reaper that seemed to have lost interest in him as it stared emptily through the opening it created. Slowly, Tartarus mended its wound, and the Reaper vanished from sight.

 _[When you're on a floor too long, the Reaper comes. Can use all elemental attacks, can break resistances and is itself resistant to all elements. Nullifies Light and Dark. Almighty works fine. Recommended to take him on with full party near the limit of growth. Suggested party arrangement i—… What was I saying, young one?]_ Orpheus asked, as if he was an old man who'd been interrupted in the middle of a story.

Silence hung in the air, like the blade of a guillotine. Swallowing, he formed the question in his mind thoughtfully.

' _Orpheus? You're me, right?'_

 _[Of course I am.]_

' _Then… how did you know about that Shadow?'_

 _[I… don't know.]_

Slowly, Minato's legs began to grow back, painfully reminding him that he didn't know what he really was, that he didn't even understand his own body. Moreover, it seemed he even didn't fully understand Orpheus.

He was too young still, too inexperienced, too weak, too foolish to even arrogantly call himself a proper hero. He knew that much, it had been why he'd lashed out and run off to Tartarus, to prove to himself that he was wrong when, in the end, he'd only proven himself right.

Raising a fist towards the sky, aiming it towards the moon, he remembered briefly that there were people back home he'd promised to be friends with. People he had to protect.

' _Mom, Dad, watch me. I'll make you proud.'_

* * *

 **April 26, 2006 (6 years later): Jikan Junior High**

* * *

Akihiko was alone in the middle school boxing club's room, cooling off after his workout with a bottle of water in one hand. The boxing ring was empty, the punching and speed bags unmanned, the folding chairs all empty save for his. Of course, he had to be the last one to go. Akihiko took his desire for strength differently than the others.

A small buzz to his left reminded him he'd left his phone on the folding chair. Reaching over and checking it, a slight smile floated to his face as he saw the message on the device.

 _{So you finally saw that weird place too, Hiko? Ah, isn't it super strange?! We should meet up and form a Weird Place Club! If enough people are able to get to it, we could open up a guided tour system and make money! It's a business scheme, a business scheme!}_ The message said, sans emotes and improper grammar. Most of her messages were unreadable without mentally doing that.

 _{I'm not sure green sky and blood water is tourist friendly, Ai. Just focus on your studying for now and, while meeting up sounds fun, you're all the way in Okinawa right now,}_ He replied. Of course, Aigis had been adopted pretty easily at the orphanage after a few years, but they still kept in touch. To be more precise, she'd gone _back_ to the orphanage to give him a phone and her contact information while shouting about the importance of friends.

A few moments later he got a reply.

 _{(ᗒᗣᗕ) u stay safe hiko there r scary monsters out there!_ ＼(º □ º l|l)/ _ill swim 2 save u if u need me_ _。。。ミヽ_ _(_ _。＞＜_ _)_ _ノ_ _}_

His eyes widened. He'd been so surprised by her concern he'd forgotten to filter out her emotes and grammar. With a gentle smile he tersely replied, _{Worry about yourself for once. I'll be able to protect myself...}_

' _...And you,'_ he mentally added. He'd never believed her about this weird 25th hour in the day until, in an instant, she'd rearranged everything in his bedroom. He had no other choice than to believe she worked on a different system of time than he did. Of course, the monsters she described were few in number. However, upon seeing it for himself, Iwatodai was drowning in monsters. Remembering that she planned to go to Gekkoukan in a few years, only renewed his determination to get stronger.

He'd already lost one sister.

"Third Year Class C, Akihiko Sanada," a voice suddenly called. He turned his head to see a red-haired girl about his age. "Captain of the boxing club, adopted a year ago from Mizuki Orphanage, and, now, one of the very few who has been experiencing something… different each midnight."

"How do you know about that?" He asked, eyes narrowing. The girl smiled.

"I'm experiencing the same thing. However, let's just say I'm substantially more informed," she said with her arms crossed. "I'll get straight to the point. I have enemies that need defeating. Those same ones that appear during the Dark Hour. Help me out, and I'll be willing to share what I know. After all, what better way to test your strength? You'll be able to fight an opponent without having to limit yourself by the rules of boxing."

"I'll do it."

"And with this you ca—" She stopped mid sentence in surprise. In her hand was a gun-like object. Apparently she was going to explain what it was, but it didn't matter. Akihiko didn't even know the girl's name but he didn't need to. To most people, he seemed bent on strength and training endlessly, but…

This was his ray of hope.

' _Just wait, Ai. I'll kill every monster in this town before you come here.'_

The two left the building together, heading towards Mitsuru's home for a briefing. Under the light of the setting sun, leaning against the school gates with a book open in one hand, stood an older kid, most likely a high schooler, who shared the same white hair as Akihiko. Faintly, the boxer could make out a thin streak of blue in the older boy's hair. The boy with the book wore a white hoodie, black jeans, and, for some reason, white, satin gloves. As they approached, the boy closed his book, and looked up at them, his red eyes meeting Akihiko's grey ones.

"It went well then?" The boy asked the girl, who'd later introduced herself as the famously rich Mitsuru Kirijo. The heiress nodded, a grin on her face.

"Sanada is eager to lend his assistance." Then, looking at Akihiko, she motioned towards the boy. "This is Minato Arisato. He's my bodyguard and currently our greatest combat potential."

The words caused Akihiko's ears to pick up. Cracking his knuckles, he approached Minato.

"Care for a quick spar? I'm interested to see how I match up with the strongest."

Minato looked to Mitsuru and she nodded. Handing her his book, he turned around and started for the grassy field outside the middle school. Akihiko followed suit.

"I heard a lot of things about you as well. You're the pride of your school when it comes to fighting. However," Minato turned and faced Akihiko. "You'll need to be even stronger to fight the stuff that I fight on a daily basis."

A grin spread across Akihiko's face as he raised his fists.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that," he said as he started to bounce on his feet. Rushing forwards, he feinted just as he reached Minato before dashing to the side and aiming an uppercut right where Minato's kidneys would be.

' _I'm in good form today!'_ He thought briefly. His good mood only lasted for a moment.

His fist was stopped, caught in Minato's fist. Jumping back, he waved his hand out as shock and pain ran through it. How hard was this guy?! It felt like he punched steel!

"Go on, I'll let you have the first minute," Minato said blankly as he beckoned Akihiko. A chill ran down the boxer's spine. He looked over at Mitsuru, who was observing with a smirk.

"Hey, where the heck did you find this guy?!" He shouted. Mitsuru smiled coldly in response. Seeing he wasn't going to get any answers, Akihiko raised his fists once more. Going back in, he decided to try to overwhelm Minato with attacks. Jab, jab, cross, uppercut, hook. Repeat, vary, create an opening and take it.

Yet, for some reason, not a single one of his attacks landed.

Jabs were stopped with one hand, crosses flew past Minato's face, the uppercut never even touched him, and the hooks went wide, leaving Akihiko wide open.

' _Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy! You're better than this, Akihiko!'_ However, he needed to capitalize on that one minute. Dashing around Minato, he tried to take the boy's back, but Minato turned around quickly and parried each of his punches with his bare hands. Akihiko took some distance between them again.

' _My arms feel like they're on fire,'_ he thought as sweat trickled down his face. _'But I haven't had this much fun in a fight in years!'_

Closing the distance once more, Akihiko put everything he had into one punch. The man he fought had superior reach, speed, reflexes, strength, and was tougher than nails. However…

Boxing was Akihiko's domain.

Before he threw the punch, he briefly saw Minato ready to block his attack, so Akihiko risked it. He took one step forward and switched his stance. Southpaw. His left fist tore through the air and, at that moment, Akihiko knew it was the fastest uppercut he'd ever thrown. His fist collided with Minato's stomach.

However, the man didn't move.

' _So, with my current strength, it was hopeless from the start, huh?'_

"Your one minute is up," Minato said. "My turn."

And then Akihiko's world exploded with light.

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Mitsuru asked as she walked over. Minato looked at the guy he'd knocked out in a single, quick punch. Even though he was unconscious, Akihiko had a pleased smile on his face. Turning to her, he reached down and lifted up his hoodie and undershirt. In response, Mitsuru turned away.

"W-What are you doing?" She asked, a flush coming across her face. Even though he was a machine and she'd technically seen him without clothes plenty of times before… Ah, she knew getting him clothes like this would make everything weird!

"That last hit was hard," he said. Turning to look at him, she saw his stomach had caved in slightly from a fist-sized dent. "If we gave him that Evoker and proper weapons…"

He stopped when he noticed Mitsuru frowning.

"You didn't need to take his hit like that," she said with her arms crossed. "I could clearly see his strength without you getting hurt."

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you he'd managed to actually land the hit on me," Minato said as he scratched his head.

Mitsuru sighed.

"Unfortunately, I have too much faith in your abilities and know you a little too well, Mr. Hero. It must have been _hard_ to feel like the villain in this situation," she said as she pulled out her phone and called her chauffeur. "Wake him up and bring him to the car when it comes around." She said as she started to walk away.

"What do you mean unfortunately?" Minato called out after her. She ignored him, now in full Ice Queen mode. Knowing her, she'd be angry with him for at least a week.

Bringing his eyes back to Akihiko, Minato sighed.

"So, you're my new Emperor Link, huh."

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in a back alley**

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow, not the hair!" Sho shouted as he was hoisted up by his scalp. Leaning against the brick wall, Labrys grinned.

"Talk about a _hairy_ situation, huh Sho?" She said as she watched the relatively small Sho lose to the bigger kid who held him up by the head with one hand.

"No! Stop it! Only I'm allowed t— Aah! Stop touching my hair, you son of a bitch!" Sho suddenly exclaimed as he lifted his legs and kicked the bigger boy in the chest. His attack barely moved his assailant, but he was let go and could drop to the ground to retreat to the "allied" side of the alley, if Labrys counted as one.

"Thanks for the help," he sarcastically commented as he fixed his hair. Labrys shrugged.

"Weren't you the one who said, 'I don't need your help, tin can! I have this covered!'?" She replied, doing a whiny impression. His face flushed red in embarrassment.

"Gah, that's not the point!"

"Excuse me," the stranger Sho had been tangling with interrupted, "But I don't have the time for this. Leave me alone."

Sho looked at Labrys with exasperation and the machine could only pinch her nose and sigh as she took a step forwards.

"Shinjiro Aragaki, even though this idiot tried to blackmail ya with it, we do know about what happened a few days ago. You woke up to to it, didn't ya? Your Persona," Labrys stated as she stepped forwards. "Like it or not, we're the only people who can help ya with that. Put it to good use."

Shinjiro, dressed in his black and white junior high uniform still, could only be described as clean cut. Short hair, the type to smile even when nobody was looking. Yet, despite that, when Sho brought up the property damage brought up by his Persona, Shinjiro had turned feral. Even though a Persona can only be summoned with an Evoker normally, Shinjiro's awakening had been powerful enough for his Persona to manifest violently in the Dark Hour. Luckily, nobody had been hurt by that outburst, but, perhaps, they could keep him from potentially hurting anyone if they had him join. At least, that had been Mitsuru's plan.

"I don't want anything to do with any sort of organization or little clubs or whatever," he said as he pushed past her and headed towards the alley's exit. "I just want a quiet, normal life. I don't want to fight monsters or whatever. I don't want to save the world. Save that work for the heroes. That _thing_ you call a Persona? I can keep it under control. I'll repeat myself once more. Leave me alone."

"And what if ya can't control it? What if it hurts someone?" Labrys called to his back. He stopped. "The normal life ya want? Gone the moment ya saw the Dark Hour. Only way to get that normal back is to make the Dark Hour go away. And, like it or not, we're the only people who stand a chance of solving that particular problem."

Shinjiro turned around.

"I have people I care about. People I don't want to have to worry or lie to," he said he looked at the ground. "That Persona that came out of me, even though I have it under control, what guarantee do I have that you can stop me if it rampages?"

Labrys eyed Sho. The kid had fallen asleep in a pile of garbage.

"If ya have people ya care about, then ya should be out there protectin' them," Labrys walked forwards and grabbed Shinjiro by the front of his shirt. He grabbed her hand to try to force her off, but, much to his surprise, her grip only tightened more. Labrys lifted him into the air. "Listen, buddy, ya need to get your head out of your ass. Whatever your Persona is, we can take it down if we need to. But the real question is: Are you just going to sit and watch when one of those people ya care about is killed by a Shadow?"

Putting him down, she walked over to Sho and kicked him.

"Fuck you, you steely bitch!" He shouted as rolled in the garbage, holding his now very sore stomach.

"Wake up. We're leavin'," Labrys said before suddenly touching her finger to her mechanical ear. Nodding her head once, she added to Shinjiro, "Oh, and your friend Akihiko Sanada? He just decided to join us."

Shinjiro sighed.

"Fine. I'll join too. Happy?"

Labrys smiled.

"C'mon, it won't be so bad."

* * *

 **Next: Chapter 7: It Was Pretty Bad**

* * *

A/N: The butterfly effect sure is something.

 **Question of the Chapter: Have you ever tried to define yourself by using one trait, one aspect of your character?**


	7. It Was Pretty Bad

**Chapter 7: It Was Pretty Bad**

 **A/N: Short chapter, last of prologue chapters. Screw adverbs. Get out of my story.** **Beta'd by Erin Carde. I added some minor stuff after he beta'd, so it's probably my bad if there are mistakes.**

* * *

 **SWS: Shinjiro Aragaki**

* * *

I always lost.

Lost my family.

Lost my home.

Lost Miki.

It felt like my hands had holes in them or something, you know? Every time I tried to hold something, it fell right through them. It's enough to make a guy like me want to give up. For a while, I did. I stopped caring. As long as I had my brother, I'd try to not be greedy and grab onto something else.

Then things changed.

Somebody came up to us and forced their way into being our friend. People are tough. When we're broken, we sometimes try to stitch ourselves back together using other people as the stitches. Ai became our stitches, kept us from falling apart. From then on, a normal life was possible. Healing and moving forward and shit was possible. At least, that was how it should have been. Even if I don't want to admit it, I guess now I fucking have to. Akihiko fixed himself up, stitches all nice and clean, but mine?

Mine were crooked, infected.

Guess it was only a matter of time before the holes in my hands opened up again.

* * *

 **1 Year Later**

* * *

The night sky loomed over the world, showing only a small peek of the endless depths beyond it, of the moon and the stars.

But… Ken Amada wasn't supposed to be able to see the stars tonight.

Wasn't he in his bed with the curtains drawn?

Where did the ceiling go?

"Mom?" He whimpered. All he heard in reply was a moan. Turning his head to the right, Ken saw his mother pinned beneath part of the ceiling that had collapsed. Suddenly, a roar shook the night. His mom opened her eyes only for them to flood with fear. The wind chilled Ken to the bone. He'd never seen his mother afraid. Even when dad left…

' _Mom… what's happening? Don't look like that, please,'_ Ken cried in his heart.

"Ken, run!" She shouted mere seconds before _it_ fell through the ceiling.

Horse and horseman, black with glowing red eyes, a monster from someone's nightmare. Thick, black liquid oozed off the monster as the horse reared back onto its hind legs. The liquid-like arm of the horseman bubbled before hardening into a lance aimed at Ken's mother.

"No, you can't take her!" Ken screamed as he pushed himself to his feet and ran at the monster. Instinct surpassed reason, surpassed fear. As a young boy in his pajamas without a weapon, Ken could do nothing, but he still had to try!

A tear formed in the corner of his mother's eye.

' _Don't hurt my mom, you monster!'_ Ken's soul shouted.

But he was too slow.

The beast thrust its lance forwards… and its attack clanged off metal. A golden shield had appeared in front of his mom. From behind it stood something just as impossible as the monster that had appeared and almost taken everything from Ken. A hero with shining white hair and a fluttering red scarf. The golden shield turned into a broadsword that the hero swung in a huge arc, sending the monster flying out of the hole in the ceiling.

The hero took a moment and looked at Ken with his red eyes.

' _Heroes and monsters… they're all real…'_

"Everything will be fine. For now, call an ambulance," he said before transforming into a red and blue armor and flying into the air after the monster. Ken grabbed a phone that had fallen onto the floor and ran to his mother's side.

"We'll be okay, Mom. It's all going to be okay," Ken could only say those words as he fumbled with the phone. Looking up, he saw the hero fly through the monster with his sword, splitting it in two.

"Ken, you… Listen to your mother when she… tells you… to run away," his mother said through pained breaths, yet she smiled.

Suffice to say, Ken would never be the same after this.

* * *

"It was pretty bad. I get it, kid. You're a bit mixed up, maybe nervous," Officer Kurosawa said to the kid in the chair across from him. At 2AM, the station was a mess with officers running to and fro, phones rings everywhere, and, to top everything off, the damn intern still hadn't come back with his coffee. There were people who wanted to know what happened, people who wanted to report what had already been reported, people whose homes had been affected by the destruction.

"So how about you take a deep breath, relax, and try to remember. Tell me what you saw for real this time, kid. You're apparently the only eyewitness who saw everything happen," Kurosawa said as he leaned back in faux-leather chair. It had started to fall apart recently, with flakes of fake leather chipping off every other time he sat in it. His mahogany desk, at the very least, was clean. This was, of course, because his shift should have ended an hour ago.

"I'm not lying!" The kid, Ken Amada, shouted as he slammed his fist on the table. "It really happened! A monster attacked our house and a superhero stopped it! It's not some sort of stupid explosion!"

Kurosawa rubbed his temples. Of course it wasn't a gas leak or any sort of explosion. He'd been an officer for a while now, but the clues didn't add up. Just by looking at it, it was obvious that most of the debris of the kid's house was on the inside, not the outside. Not to mention, no sound of an explosion had been reported, only a large crash. From preliminary reports, not even burn marks were found.

He was a police officer. Which meant if this was a crime and not just an accident, he had to get to the bottom of it. But this kid was giving him nothing to work with. The horse and its rider that the kid described sounded way too made up and, even if this "monster" was a guy on a horse, how the hell did he destroy half of the kid's house? And, more importantly, why? What was the motivation here?

Kurosawa sighed as he stood up from his desk.

"How about I get us both something to drink, alright? It doesn't look like the intern will be getting my coffee anytime soon, anyway," he said before moving towards the door opposite the desk. The kid looked back, indignation in his eyes. Kurosawa sighed once more as he left. Bringing his phone out of his pocket, he dialed a familiar number as he made his way towards the back exit of the police station.

"It's me. Got a report not too long ago. Kid's mom survived, but we're looking at a possible permanent disability."

 _{Nobody else was hurt?}_ The voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Nobody," he said as he reached the back parking lot. The squad cars were out at the scene setting up a perimeter, so the backlot felt much emptier than normal. Holding the phone to his face with his shoulder to free up a hand, Kurosawa reached for his cigarettes. "But that kid's gonna have some sort of mental trauma. Thinks he saw a monster and a superhero and won't change his stance on that. Hopefully, he'll learn to admit he saw wrong."

 _{How much to make this incident disappear?}_ The voice requested. Kurosawa lit his cigarette and put it to his mouth. After a moment of deliberation, he exhaled the smoke and spoke into the phone.

"It won't be that hard, assuming you guys also got people in the forensics division."

He was a police officer, which meant he had to work for the good of the people, solve crimes, and mete out justice where necessary. However, before that, he was a husband and a father.

' _Sorry, kid. But I have to feed my family. My wife's hospital bills don't pay for themselves.'_

"I'll accept the usual rate with a bonus. It'll help with the guilt, Mr. Kirijo."

And, like that, Kurosawa buried his curiosity about the truth behind the events that transpired with the hopes that nobody would ever find out the truth, whatever it was. With luck, the kid would question what he thought he saw, try to forget it, move on, and not make a big deal over it. Life would go on.

' _Or he might never get over it and his mom will never walk again. Maybe he'll always be traumatized, never knowing why this happened to him.'_

Kurosawa tossed his cig, stomping it out onto the ground. Pulling his police cap down, he swore under his breath. The extra money wouldn't help with the guilt at all.

* * *

Simply put, it had been a disaster.

A patrol where Shinjiro's Persona went rampant. However, thankfully, Minato and Labrys had been there at the time. Unfortunately, the fight lasted beyond the Dark Hour and some innocent people ended up being involved.

"...But, nobody died. With time and therapy, that boy's mother may even walk again," Mitsuru said to the group assembled in the dorms. They were all in the conference room on the fourth floor, sitting around a table with chairs and couches. "Shinji, I'll extend my offer once again. Take some time off from school and head down to Yakushima. My father's men may be able to help you. We need you."

Shinjiro's eyes were fixed on the floor.

"But I… hurt somebody. Maybe permanently disabled a kid's mom. You can't act like it's fine just because nobody died," Shinjiro said with his hands clasped together. "I don't want to go into some sort of lab to be poked and prodded. If I rampage there, I'll only hurt more people. I'm a nuisance at _best_."

"So you're going to not even try to see if they can do something for you? That's stupid, Shinji," Akihiko said as he leaned forwards. "What other option do you have? Are you just gonna run away? How the hell will you be able to face Ai if you're not willing to take care of yourself and just run away?!"

Shinji stood up.

"Shut up about her! Damn it, she's all you ever talk about anymore!" Shinjiro shouted. Akihiko froze for a moment before he leaned back, eyes downcast. Shinjiro took a shaky breath. He looked around. Honest concern shone in Labrys' eyes, Mitsuru's as well. Minato, the person who'd defeated his rampant Persona, sagged in his chair with his nearly black lyre in his hands, but fire remained in his eyes. Sho, the asshole of the group, chuckled as he thumbed through a comic.

"Look, I appreciate that you all care or whatever, but this whole 'teamwork' thing doesn't work when one member of the team is a fucking bomb," Shinjiro said as he fell into his chair, staring at his hands. "I think I should just leave."

Mitsuru sighed.

"Let's get everyone else's thoughts on this," she said as she stood, taking command of the room. "I, for one, think he should go into treatment."

The whole room looked to the non-participant, Sho, who still read his comic.

"Look, it's his fucking choice, right? Who are we to stop him?" Sho said as he turned the page. "If you want to run away like a little bitch and piss on somebody else's tree, then do it." Sho threw the comic behind him and leaned back into his chair, placing his feet up on the table. With an eyeroll, Labrys stood and frowned at Mitsuru.

"I'd like to agree with ya, Mitsuru, but you and I both know what happened at Yakushima before. Maybe we can find some sort of other solution. We could try seein' if there's something specific that triggers the rampages. Run some tests in Tartarus where the only ones that could get hurt are Shadows," Labrys suggested. She sat back down, blowing a raspberry at Sho, who had since gone back and retrieved his comic. Minato took the floor next.

"If you want to leave, Shinjiro, I will not stop you. You have that right. In fact, I was against you joining in the first place," Minato said. "But if you hurt somebody else because you walk away from us, I will bring you back via whatever means necessary. You will not get any more chances. It would be wise to take Labrys' suggestion and see if we could handle this instead."

' _To that kid, he'll remember you as the monster that almost killed his mom. However, with time, he can start to forget and he can heal. If you rampage without us, you'll kill somebody. Their family would never forgive you for that. I know I wouldn't,'_ Minato suppressed the words he wanted to say. The image of a burning car flashed in his mind.

"I don't know what happened, but he's my brother. Regardless of the risk, if there's a chance we can stop this before something serious happens that could harm him or somebody else, we should take it," Akihiko said before turning to Shinjiro and placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, "At the very least, do it for the people that care about you. I can't lose you too, Shinji."

Shinjiro shuddered at those words and shrugged off Akihiko's hand.

"You'll find somebody else to take my place. Just like with Miki." Shinjiro walked towards the door. "I don't want to risk hurting anybody else. I'll go far away, piss on somebody else's yard."

And, with those words, Shinjiro Aragaki left the organization recently titled the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or S.E.E.S, for short.

"It was 'piss on somebody else's tree', idiot!" Sho shouted after him. Akihiko sighed as he dropped his head into his hands while Mitsuru and Labrys glared at Sho.

"Yeah, he really is an idiot," the boxer murmured.

* * *

Ikutsuki cracked his knuckles in the control room, staring at the screen through the camera that had captured all the events that had just transpired. He pushed the button on his earpiece.

"We have ourselves a stray little lamb. Have the modified suppressants ready."

* * *

That night, Akihiko punched his punching bag until his fists bled, cast Dia on them to heal them with his Persona, Polydeuces, and then punched even more before exhaustion claimed his consciousness. His phone lit up with the message, _{How is everything?}_. It would take him a hour to answer that question when he woke up.

Mitsuru confined herself to her room. If one listened with an ear to her door, they could make out her chastising herself in hushed tones until she could do so no more and fell asleep. The following morning, she'd appear to them as composed as ever, despite the fact that her sleep had been fitful at best.

Sho stared at his phone, biting his thumb. The number reflected in his eyes was one titled "Dad". With a sigh, he threw his phone onto the bed. He would not call that number this time.

As for Labrys and Minato…

* * *

 **SWS: Labrys**

* * *

Minato and me went up on the roof for a bit. Neither of us really needs sleep, so I figured we might as well keep each other busy for a little while. ASW to ASW. Brother to sister, I guess. Over the past seven years, I liked to think we'd gotten a lot closer. Close enough to see the subtle changes. Of course, it helped that I had a perfect memory and could directly compare the past him to the present him. He'd grown more serious and a bit colder, just like Mitsuru.

Seriously, it's not a good idea to try to imitate her, ya know? There were times he'd feel more machine-like than me, ya know? If it kept on, I might have had to start making it a competition, ya know?

"I get it," I started as I sat on the edge of the roof. "You trusted somebody and were betrayed before. You're the hero and he's the villain or somethin' silly like that."

He said nothing. All that silence is irritating. Big sis gets annoyed when her little bro won't hold a conversation with her…

Noticing my glare, he looked off to the side and replied, "Something like that."

I patted the ground beside me and he walked on over and sat beside me on the edge of the roof. What? We could have fallen? It was dangerous? Heh, if we fell, I'd be more worried for the concrete than us. Mitsuru would definitely had made me pay for it. I threw an arm around Minato's shoulders and pulled him close.

"You think he wanted to hurt somebody?" I asked. He shook his head. Good boy. "You think he wanted to go on hurtin' people?" He shook his head again. "Then he's not a stinkin' villain or monster or some crap. Sometimes people got no say in the matter."

#024 and my other sisters had no choice. Neither did I. We all killed each other with no real alternative. But, if I'd fought back against those scientists earlier, if I'd been able to unite my sisters, if I'd done somethin' different… Maybe I could have found an alternative. I could have saved them. Instead, I slaughtered them all. Shinji lucked out. He didn't have to kill his own kin.

"But he needs to take responsibility for his decision," Minato answered as his hands curled into fists. "If he wants to run so he doesn't hurt anyone, I won't forgive him if he still ends up hurting people."

That's fair. People have to take responsibility for their actions.

Responsibility...

I sighed and took my arm off his shoulders. It was as good a time as any to tell him. He had the right to know.

"You don't know this, but, I had to earn this name. There used to be a lot more 5th Generation ASWs like me. I was… good friends with one of them. She was my sister. All of us, one family," I said, smilin' a little. Even Sho could have seen the gears turnin' in his head as he processed the information.

"What did the Kirijo Group make you do?" He asked. I felt like laughin'. The Kirijo Group? How sweet.

"I killed 'em all. One by one, broke them into pieces, takin' their data. I can tell it's different for you, but, back in my day, only one ASW got a name. The last one remainin'." I paused, grippin' my skirt so hard that I knew it'd be wrinkled later. I had no idea what expression I was wearing when I choked out the next words. "They made me kill my sister."

Silence weighed on us for a few moments. I wiped away the tears formin' in the corners of my eyes. No time to cry. Push forward.

"So, does that make me a villain?" I asked. With shock fillin' his face, I pushed one finger against his chest. "The world ain't black and white. I got plenty of regrets and things I gotta make up for, but I'm doin' my best right now. Sometimes life just smacks ya in the back of the head and curses ya with somethin' awful. Sometimes it makes ya do awful things. I'm sure Shinji is sufferin' right now. He's a good person at heart."

His eyes widened as if the world now made a little bit more sense for him. The feelin' of being a reliable older sister felt good. Was that what #024 felt when she guided and looked out for me? Then, out of nowhere, Minato hugged me.

"You're a good person too," he said just loud enough for me to hear. I returned the gesture. There we were, two robots huggin' on a rooftop like a couple of idiots. Even today, the memory makes me smile.

I needed to hear those words back then. I like to think that he knew that too.

* * *

 **Next Chapter: Matryoshka**

* * *

 **A/N:** The stage is set. Happier times ahead. Enjoyed reading your guys' responses to the last question. Check out Fandom Flux on youtube. Podcast thing I'm a part of.

 **Question of the Chapter: Have you ever been so filled with regret for something that you ran away without thinking things through?**


	8. Matryoshka

**Chapter 8: Matryoshka**

 **A/N: Starting off with using some P3 Club Book info and some creativity to fill in some blanks.**

 **Beta'd by Erin Carde**

* * *

 **Excerpt from:** _ **Welcome to Strega! Chapter 5: The Dark Hour**_

* * *

I'm sure that you have many burning questions after our last few sections, but fear not, future member, for here's an extinguisher to one of those questions. After all, we can't leave you in your darkest hour, can we?

 **How was the Dark Hour created?**

An excellent question! You see, Shadows cannot manifest in our world as they are entities of pure thought and emotion. However, Shadows can fuse into each other many times over, creating powerful Shadows able to access their full potential and manipulate space-time itself. Thus, they create a space outside of time in which Shadows can move, but human beings cannot. It was this ability to manipulate space-time that had first enchanted the founder of the Kirijo Group, Kouetsu Kirijo.

 **Why do people turn into coffins?**

The phenomenon of Transmogrification occurs to protect people from the Dark Hour. As for the specifics of how this happens, please, turn to chapter 7.

 **Why can people with Potential enter the Dark Hour then?**

Those people are those who can adapt. Unlike the vast majority of people, certain exceptional individuals are able to, rather than suppress their Shadow, face their own mortality head on without falling to desiring death. Amongst those individuals are some who can tame the Shadows in their hearts. Such an action creates a "Persona" and allows the individual to use the powers of a Shadow for himself, albeit on a more limited level. After all, a Persona-user that can fuse Personas like Shadows does not exist, so they lack the power to manipulate space-time as freely as a well-fused Shadow.

But you, recruit, are different from them.

You are superior.

* * *

 **April 6th, 2009**

* * *

 _[Soon.]_

The sudden voice jerked Aigis awake. Looking around, she reaffirmed that she was alone on the train. Shaking her head once, Aigis reached to the seat next to her for red headphones. She almost started her music back up before she remembered the batteries had died a while ago, hence why she slept. Stretching her arms above her, a smile drifted onto the blonde's face. Finally, she was going back. Hiko and Shinji were there, so it would be easy to find her footing here. At least, she hoped so. As there was nobody else on the train, she'd taken full advantage of this opportunity to practice her bold return.

"There is no need to cry, Hiko and Shinji, for I have returned!

"Oh, Ai, I missed you! Please, help me to be more popular instead of a weird loner who only likes to punch bags!

I joined the cooking club, but could only make burnt rice without you, Ai!" She cried, playing both roles with her in a triumphant stance and her friends as whimpering children. If they were here, she'd probably get a few whacks on the head for their portrayal. The thought of that alone made her smile.

"Now arriving at the final stop, Tatsumi Port Island, Iwatodai Station. Please gather your belongings and prepare to exit. Thank you, and have a nice day."

The doors opened. Aigis looked at the time on her phone and sighed. 11:59. One minute until everything became the Super Weird Place. She picked up her duffle bag filled with various books and games meant to keep her busy during the long trip.

Her life until now hadn't been perfect, but she'd always been able to make a few friends wherever she went. The family that adopted her tended to move around a lot, however, so that left a lot of broken off relationships and promises to stay in contact that were never fulfilled. Fortunately, Hiko and Shinji always responded to her messages, even if Shinji only tended to use one-word replies.

12:00.

The world turned green, people became coffins, and water became blood. Tourists would _love_ it here. Filling her lungs with the night air of this strange world, Aigis sauntered into city that had become a horror enthusiast's wet dream. She had memorized the location of the dorm in advance. If Aigis had one thing that she was proud of, it was her impeccable memory. It took her a little while to reach her destination.

The tall building of her dorm stood out in the street and had a distinctive Western feel to its architecture with the dark, wooden exterior and long, vertical windows. On either side of the doors that led inside were carefully maintained bushes, reassuring Aigis that the place was still being used. Though she had a good memory, she could have messed up and read the map wrong.

With a skip in her step, she bounced up the stairs and opened the door. To all of a sudden appear inside the building out of nowhere could give her the long sought after "air of mystery" to her doormates. She giggled to herself as she took her first step in. As electronics didn't work during this time, there was an impenetrable darkness in the room, save for the small amount of moonlight that creeped in from the open door and front windows. Aigis advanced inside.

The door slammed behind her.

The light that should have been coming in through the window died off as if it was never there to begin with.

High-pitched metallic sounds resounded throughout the building, like a child playing with a xylophone.

"H-Hiko? S-Shinji? Did you guys somehow find out I'd be coming this late? You can stop. This i-isn't funny."

A child's laugh responded to her words.

With a strained smile, Aigis took one shaky step backwards.

From the darkness appeared two black, metal pegs that could be considered feet. They ran up to a black and white striped dress with long sleeves that covered the arms of the thing that had appeared. From the bars that covered it arose the thing's neck, pale as death, which led to the smiling face of the being. Hair as thin and dark as a shadow draped over the being's shoulder and atop the head of this creature lay trapped in the waves of inky black a red butterfly pin. Below this, were eyes like pools of blood at the bottom of a well. This thing could only be described as ill-fitting. An existence that could no—

"Oh, it's just you, Metis," Aigis said before she walked forward, patting the small girl on the head as she passed. "I don't have any time to play today. It's pretty late after all."

Scowling, the little girl turned around and grabbed Aigis by the wrist. As she was bigger, the blonde continued, dragging Metis behind her.

"Oh come on! I worked hard on that entrance! Why are you always like this now?! Why aren't you scared of me anymore?!" Metis cried as she pulled with no effect. Aigis stopped, got down on one knee, and placed a hand on Metis' shoulder. The voice inside her head that had once taunted and haunted her had been reduced to this.

"'I'm Death itself! Fear me! I shall consume you' was it? Or how about 'If you just think about giving me control, I'll use your body and make lots and lots of friends for you?' After all these years, it just gets boring, you know? If you want to try me at tic-tac-toe, I think we'd both have more fun," Aigis said with a kind smile. Tears formed in the corners of Death's eyes.

"Don't treat me like I'm some imaginary friend!" Metis waled. A clipboard appeared in her hands. Holding it forwards with eyes screwed shut and a frown, she added, "Just sign this!"

Aigis kept her smile and eyes locked on Metis as she reached out and smacked the clipboard out of Death's hands.

"Common Sense 101: Don't make deals with the devil."

Silence.

Metis stood there, frozen, staring at the fallen clipboard as if it were a lump of ice cream that had just fallen off her cone and onto the hot cement at an amusement park. The little girl fell to her knees and tears peeked out of the corners of her eyes.

"It… just says… you'll take responsibility for your actions... " Metis sobbed. "And I'm not the Devil… I'm Death! Death!"

Aigis sighed as she scratched the back of her head.

"If it'll make you feel better, Your Deathliness, I'll take a look at it," Aigis said. Metis beamed, her smile shining through the tears. Under her breath, Aigis added, "Here's hoping I don't regret this."

Bending down, she picked up the clipboard, stood, and read it. To her surprise, it matched what Metis said. Looking at the back of the sheet of paper, along the margins, and even after taking the first letter of every word, Aigis could find no hidden clause.

"Do you have a pen I could use?" Aigis asked with a smile as she reached her arm down. "This seems like an awful idea, but, hey, nothing ventured nothing gained." With her head down, Metis raised her hand up and a blue pen appeared in it. The effect of the pen was immediate, calming Aigis down and filling her heart with warmth that clouded her judgement long enough for her to write her first name.

 _Aigis._

And then the contract disappeared as if all it ever needed was her first name.

A frown passed over Aigis' face before a smile crushed it under its weight. The contract only stated what she intended on doing. Besides, it couldn't take effect if she didn't do anything that required her to take responsibility in the first place. At most, all it meant was that she'd have to actually do her homework.

Metis pouted as she stood up.

"I really hate that smile. It's not yours. Those arms and legs, that skin, and the heart the beats underneath it all don't belong to you." Metis lurched forwards, floating in midair an inch away from Aigis' face with a predatory grin. Aigis trembled. "No matter how much you borrow or steal to try to fill yourself, you'll always be a bag filled with holes. Everything will fall out."

With those words, she disappeared and moonlight began to shine through the windows once more.

"Who's there?" A feminine voice called out behind Aigis. Turning around, the blonde met with a brunette in a pink cardigan pointing a pistol at her. An enemy with a weapon. Enemy. Weapon.

 _[Target:Armed. Status:Enemy. Asimov's Third Law in effect.]_

The life in Aigis' eyes drained away as she closed the distance, ducked under the gun, and disarmed her by pushing the barrel up while pulling the grip backwards. In an instant, the girl found herself staring down the barrel of her own gun. The brunette gulped down a scream as sweat began to form on her brow.

 _[Target:Clarified. Human. Asimov's First Law in effect… Wait, what? Ah, damn it not again!,'_ Aigis thought as the life flooded back into her eyes. _'Let's laugh it off. Yeah, sure. That'll work.'_

"Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your newbie hazing," Aigis laughed as she scratched the back of her head. She held the gun out, noticing the weird barrel and "S.E.E.S" inscription. "Here's your toy back. Man, you really got me. The name's Aigis Kubomi, by the way."

With a blank expression, the girl reached out her weapon and put it away in a holster strapped to her leg.

"Yukari. Yukari Takeba. Nice to meet you too," The girl murmured.

' _Great. She's still in shock,'_ Aigis sighed.

"Welcome, Aigis Kubomi," a voice said as the lights turned on. Striding towards them from the direction of the staircase, the one and only Mitsuru Kirijo smiled. "We've been expecting you."

Applause rang out from one of the couches in the dorm lobby. Although she thought she was at the girl's dorm, Aigis found that a boy in a white hoodie sat there, a boy with white hair with a small streak of blue in it.

"Perfect entrance, Mitsuru," he praised with a smile as polite as the heiress'.

For a brief moment, Aigis made eye contact with the boy. The smile he held on his face froze just as something in her began to churn. A rod of cold iron stuck in her stomach, yet a calm wind blew in her heart. She knew him, didn't she? Did she? She didn't remember but she did and yet she didn't remember and she always remembered except for before she began to remember so was she remembering an old memory from before she remembered?

The white room where her memories began floated to her mind, its walls immaculate and pristine...

Save for a single crack that had appeared in the white tiled wall, a golden light shining through it. She tried to peek through it, but reality came flooding in and washed over her like cold water over the coals in a steam engine.

"I appreciate the praise, Minato, but it is still lacking. Had Takeba not been up and about at so late an hour, it would have been even better."

"However, Mitsuru, if she'd not called out like that, I wouldn't have woken up."

"I meant to ask about that. Why were you sleeping on the couch anyway?"

"The lounge has a great atmosphere."

"Is that really the best excuse you have?"

"It is also comfortable."

"Did you get locked out of your room again?"

"...Yes. Please help."

At this point Aigis tuned back into the conversation between Mitsuru and the boy, Minato, who were now standing together in front of her. Yukari had recovered enough to the point that she could put her hand on Aigis' shoulder.

"I'm sorry about that. It wasn't meant to be a hazing or anything. I, uh, just carry this around when I'm alone at night. I feel safer with it. You know, placebo effect and all that," Yukari admitted.

"No, no it's alright," Aigis waved it off with an embarrassed smile. "I don't feel right going around at night without my headphones. I completely understand."

At this point, Mitsuru and Minato's conversation finished, with the latter looking deflated.

"I apologize for the delay. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo and this is Minato Arisato. As you can see, this a co-ed dorm," Mitsuru explained with a business smile. "It's getting late, so you should get some rest. Boys are on the second floor, girls are on the third. Your room is at the end on the hallway. Your things should be there already."

"Sounds good to me," Aigis beamed. With that, she skipped past the red-haired girl and up the stairs, leaving the rest of them behind. She later had to shuffle back down and ask for her key.

* * *

 **April 7th, 2009 - Dorm**

* * *

"Hiiiiiiiiiko!"

The blonde cannonball dressed in a t-shirt and pajama pants slammed into the tank top brandishing Akihiko as he came in from his morning run, wiping his sweat off with his red hand towel. Wrapping her arms around him, she looked up at him with her chin digging into his chest and a bright smile on her face.

"Hi."

"Ai, I'm happy to see you too, but… could you let go? I'm covered in sweat," Akihiko said as he looked away. With a grin, she released him and bounced a few steps backwards with her arms behind her back. Little did Akihiko know, she was wiping the sweat-soaked sleeves on the back of her shirt. The sun had only just come up and even now it peeked through the windows on the door the two stood in front of.

"How's Shinji?"

"He's… been pretty busy. Last I heard he got a part-time job working at the docks," Akihiko answered with his back to her as he moved to the fridge. Pulling out a water bottle from it, he added, "Sorry I couldn't greet when you got in last night. Fell asleep after my third set."

Aigis crossed her arms.

"Geez, I told you putting a punching bag in your room would be a bad idea," she reprimanded. She paused as a youth with red hair walked down the stairs, his uniform wrinkled and dark circles shadowing his eyes. Ignoring them, he walked over to the couch and fell face first onto it.

"Get me some punch, Punch Man," his muffled voice said through the pillow. Sighing, Akihiko reached into the fridge and pulled out an energy drink. Tossing it at him, the metal can bounced off the back of the boy's head.

"Fuck you, I hope you really get fisted in your next fight," he complained into the pillow as he flopped his arm around, searching for the drink. "Fuck this couch too. Upholstery? More like _assholstery_."

"Pfft." Aigis stifled her laugh.

"You're welcome," Akihiko said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Looking to Aigis, he bobbed his head towards the stairs. "You should go get ready. Sho is just going to complain until he fully wakes up. I still don't know why he wakes up this early when he hates the morning so much."

"Okay," she said as she skipped away, adding, "Don't get fisted too deeply!"

* * *

"I wanted to apologize for what happened last night one more time," Yukari said. She and Aigis had boarded the train to school together. According to Yukari, everyone else had already gone to school while Aigis was getting ready since the upperclassmen in their dorm had responsibilities. Sho, who was in their year, refused to move from where he collapsed on the couch.

"I should be the one apologizing one more time," Aigis replied with a smile as she stood held onto the handhold hanging from the top of the train. Looking out the window, she watched the sea fly by at at an inhuman speed, turning into a wall of blue. "It's just a reflex, but I've almost hurt people before and," she paused. "Always scare them away."

Yukari snorted.

"It didn't scare me at all," she boasted.

Aigis stared at her.

Flushing red and looking away, Yukari added, "Well, I'm not scared _now_. In fact, I think it's kind of amazing, you know? I wish I could do stuff like that. Did you learn that from Akihiko-senpai or something? I heard you two were siblings."

"No. I just kind of… learned it on my own through some cool lessons and a lot of practice," Aigis lied. Yukari nodded before glancing out the window. With resolve in her eyes, Aigis added, "Say, would you like to be my frie—"

"Oh, we're almost there!" Yukari interrupted.

Aigis pouted.

* * *

After they made their way past the front gates, Aigis parted with Yukari at the shoe lockers just inside the school. Following Yukari's suggestion to see her homeroom teacher and the directions she was given, Aigis arrived in front of the Faculty Office with a pleasant smile on her face. Entering the office, she found a woman with short, light brown hair and a light brown suit seated at one of the many desks.

"Oh, you must be the new student," The teacher asserted. Aigis widened her eyes for a moment before she nodded.

"It's the blond hair, right?" Aigis asked with a chuckle. Her teacher shook her head.

"We don't have any restrictions for dyed hair, so blond isn't as rare as you might think. It's just been school policy in recent years to make sure we can recognize the faces of new transfer students. The Chairman has made it a point to care for all new students, especially those who come from afar or have disabilities," The teacher replied with a smile. "He's quite admirable."

Scratching her cheek, Aigis said, "That's… great."

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to rant," the teacher apologized. "I'm Ms. Toriumi, your Composition teacher. Ms. Kubomi, you'll be in 2-F, but before that we can head off to the Welcoming Ceremony in the auditorium together." Standing up, Ms. Toriumi added, "Welcome to Gekkoukan High. I hope that this place will come to be a second home for you."

"More like fourth," Aigis said under her breath as she followed the teacher out of the room.

* * *

 **Auditorium**

* * *

"Unfortunately, Principal Mishima is ill and cannot attend, so I'll be giving the official welcoming to you all in his stead," the man in front of the podium started. A low muttering rolled over the rows of blue chairs as the students seated in them started to whisper to each other. "My name is Shuji Ikutsuki, Chairman of the Board for Gekkoukan High. You can call me the CB, but I won't accept calls from truckers!"

Silence.

Aigis rolled her eyes at the awful joke. Everyone around her, having no knowledge of foreign radio, stared at Ikutsuki with blank eyes. The blue-capped boy in front of her turned around in his seat to look at her.

"Hey, you're the one who came in with Yukari this morning right? I saw you two earlier. Do you know if she has a boyfriend?" The boy asked.

Aigis shook her head as the man in front of the podium at the end of auditorium continued to speak.

"'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.' Those are the words the principal wanted to give you," Ikutsuki said with a smile. Then, he slammed a hand down on the podium, silencing the students with the heavy knock. "However, I know you are all brilliant minds, the future of the world. Thus, I ask _you_ to first consider whether the job is worth doing at all. Money, pride, material goods, all of these are transient, fleeting. As you are right now, your existence. Does. Not. Matter."

"So, uh, do you have a boyfriend? You're pretty cute, after all," The blue-capped boy asked Aigis, his ignoring skills top-notch. The blonde smiled.

"Nope, but thanks for the compliment! My big bro said I can only date somebody stronger than him," she chirped. "And he's captain of the Boxing Club!" The boy paled.

"Quiet! You'll get me in trouble!" Ms. Toriumi whispered from down the aisle.

"But that is why you are here, children! To become world shakers, ground breakers, idea shapers! This is the start of your journey! If you feel you are not worthy, then know that you are not, but take faith that you soon will be! Aim high, students!" Ikutsuki shouted with a fist raised to the sky. Silence consumed the student body before a polite applause broke through.

However, Aigis had watched the last few, silent words cross Ikutsuki's lips. Her lip-reading could be wrong, but it looked like he added…

"So that you can fall far."

But that couldn't be right, could it?

Much to her dismay, the speech continued on for another ten minutes.

* * *

 **After School - Homeroom**

* * *

"'On this day Junpei Iori died by uppercut.' You don't want that in the newspaper do you? I wasn't trying to hit on you! Please don't tell your big bro," The blue-capped boy pleaded. As it turned out, he and Aigis were in the same classroom, and, furthermore, he sat in front of her here as well. Aigis stood out of her chair and stretching her arms above her head.

"I won't," she said with a smile, "But I believe in you, Blue Hat! You're the chosen one! I can sell tickets if you fight him! Business scheme!"

"It's Junpei. I even subtly introduced myself earlier…" Junpei muttered. "Besides, I was only going to compliment and make you feel welcome… and then welcome you later on… I thought it was a pretty good plan..."

"Chosen one? Maybe I should tell him then," Yukari interrupted as she walked over from the open door in the class. Glancing at Junpei's sullen face, she turned to smile at Aigis and said, "Sorry about this guy bothering you. Junpei will talk to anybody that listens. At the very least, it looks like we'll be in the same class."

"Yuka-tan, you wound me," Junpei said as the life flooded back into his bones and he held his hand over his heart. "I'm really a nice guy! She's the new girl, right? I was just trying to be welcoming. I know what it's like to be the new kid."

"My name is Aigis," she introduced herself. "Aigis Kubomi. I'm new, so please take care of me. I can tell that you're both nice people." She bowed slightly, causing Junpei to pull the tip of his cap down to cover his face.

"You'll make me blush with praise like that, you know?" Junpei replied. Yukari grimaced.

"So, uh, on that note… would you both be willing to be my friends?" Aigis asked, eyes held fixed on the floor.

Silence.

Scratching the back of her head, she looked up and added, "I want to have lots of friends!"

Junpei and Yukari's eyes met and, for a moment, a silent conversation happened between them before they both shrugged and nodded.

"Sure. Friendzoning Stupei here is the ultimate protection against him," Yukari answered with a grin.

Junpei fell to his knees.

"Damn it. I should have known…"

Aigis giggled.

* * *

 **April 8th, 2009 - Evening**

* * *

"Good evening. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm the Chairman of the Board for your school. "Ikutsuki"... Hard to say, isn't it? That's why I don't like introducing myself. Even I get tongue-tied sometimes… Please, have a seat."

Nothing had really happened since yesterday for Aigis until this man greeted her when she entered the dorm. She'd talked a little bit with Yukari and Junpei, but they both were pretty busy and had other friends. Not to mention that she still had yet to really meet with any of her other dormates. Akihiko she could see in the mornings, but the only other person in her dorm she'd seen in the past day had been Yukari.

"You're the one who gave that welcome speech…" Aigis started. She moved towards the chair where he was situated and sat in the chair facing him, a glass table between them and a couch to the right of her. Ikutsuki smiled as he pushed up his glasses.

"Terrible speech, am I right? I had such short notice to prepare it," he said with a frown. Then, smiling, he leaned into his chair and said, "As you most likely already know, I make it my business to involve myself with students from particularly far places or with any sort of medical problem that may adversely affect their health. Though I'm here for other business, you my feel free to approach me and ask me any questions. I'd like nothing more than for this transitionary period to be as smooth as possible."

"T-That's nice, Mr. Ikutsuki, but I already have my big bro," she replied with a shaky smile. Ikutsuki sighed.

"I suppose that answer was to be expected. I just wished to welcome you to Gekkoukan." he said as he rose from his chair. Checking his watch, he frowned. "It appears at this time I must be heading up for an appointment. Duty calls and I must answer. You must be tired. I suggest you turn in early tonight."

With those words, Ikutsuki headed up the stairs.

Aigis turned in early that night.

* * *

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

When she opened her eyes, an elevator covered in blue met her and an old man with a long nose and an ever-present smile sat across from her behind a table. Next to the man stood a girl with platinum blond hair.

"Who are you?"

The man gestured to himself. "My name is Igor. ...I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This is Elizabeth. She's a resident here, like myself."

"Pleased to meet you," Elizabeth greeted.

"What is this place?"

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… To be precise, your body is asleep right now, so it's much closer to a dream at the moment," he answered.

"Why am I here?"

Igor's grin widened. Elizabeth held a hand to her face, stifling a laugh.

"Because you signed a contract. As such, our services are yours, Wild Card. Your unique gift can be nourished in this place and I'm afraid you will need my help in order to do so. All I ask is that you abide by your contract and assume responsibility for your actions."

"No. Why me? Why am _I_ here?"

Igor chuckled.

"Because you are the only one who is qualified."

Aigis looked at her hands, at her white gloves, at the metal caps on her fingertips. She touched her hand to the back of her neck, faintly feeling the Papillon Heart beneath the red cloth of the ribbon wrapped around her neck. Looking down, she couldn't find her toes.

"If you want to grant some special power, then it should be her," Aigis objected. "Don't drag me out. This life we have been granted is not mine to—"

With a bang, Igor slammed his hand down and swiped it across the table. Three cards were left on the table as he removed his hand from it, swishing his hand to show her that he had no cards hidden.

"The Fool in the upright position, the Death Arcana, and the Empress in the reversed position," Igor explained, pointing to each card in turn. "All one being, each one trapped in another like a matryoshka. The Fool is zero, representing infinite possibility. Naturally, this one deserves the title of 'Wild Card'. That one is you and that body is rightfully yours. Your life is yours."

A blue light shined in her hand before it solidified into the form of a blue key.

"As you no doubt have surmised, this is a dream and you must soon wake from it. Hold on to that and you will be able to come here of your own accord one day. 'Til we meet again..."

* * *

 **Dorm - Control Room**

* * *

In front of a myriad of displays, three people focused on one video feed of the blonde girl who slept through the Dark Hour. Minato, Mitsuru, and Ikutsuki watched the feed while Labrys stood in the corner, watching Ikutsuki with crossed arms.

"I already told you that I saw her walk in during the Dark Hour," Minato sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. He glanced at Mitsuru. "Wasn't that why we performed that impromptu skit about me losing my key?" Looking back at Ikutsuki, he added, "Besides, Akihiko said that she's been experiencing the Dark Hour ever since she was a child."

"Yes, but I needed to verify it with my own eyes," Ikutsuki explained with a smile as he patted Minato's shoulder. "Though I had no doubt you both were telling the truth, I am merely following instructions from Mr. Kirijo. For people who claim to have planned a more efficient observation, your failure to keep Yukari from interfering and exposing her Evoker is simply deplorable."

Behind her back, Mitsuru clenched her fist.

"Just like father ordered you to keep Labrys away from her," Mitsuru eyed Ikutsuki. In the corner of the room, Labrys scowled. Mitsuru continued, "I still don't quite understand that one. Care to explain?"

Ikutsuki grinned. "I'm afraid the reason for that is strictly confidential. We need to observe everything we can about her and, more importantly, find out whether or not she has a Persona. SEES may be your group, but it would be wise to remember who exactly provided this dorm with cameras like these in the first place."

Stretching, Ikutsuki straightened his back and began to head towards the door.

"That's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow night as well."

After he left, Labrys walked over to Mitsuru and Minato and uncrossed her arms.

"I don't like him," the ASW girl said. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Mitsuru nodded.

"I don't either, but we have no choice in the matter. Besides, he is right, we do need to discover whether or not she has a Persona." Looking at Minato, Mitsuru added, "Even though you seem very certain that she will have one, we still have yet to see one."

Minato shrugged.

"I just have a good feeling about her."

After a few minutes of small talk, Mitsuru bid the two of them goodnight and left, leaving Labrys and Minato alone. Grabbing a few chairs, the sleepless machines sat next to each other for a few moments. Labrys broke the silence first.

"His eyes. I've seen those eyes before. They're like the eyes of the scientists that created me. Full of condescension and scorn, like we're nothin' more than a buncha tools or weapons to him." She threw an arm around Minato. "Stay away from him, okay?"

"I will," Minato lied. With a smile, Labrys bid him goodnight and went off to her room. Minato sat still in the control room, watching Aigis for a few moments more. Of course, it was impossible for him to not know the face he'd etched in his mind ten years ago.

"Welcome back, superhero," he whispered.

* * *

 **Next Chapter: The Matryoshka Opens/Encounter with the Past**

* * *

 **A/N: One of the most challenging chapters for me to write. Followed Aigis for the near entirety of it while trying to not get lost in pacing and making two days into two chapters.**

 **The Empress Reversed:** Indicates that something is missing or lacking in your life. It suggests you are challenged because you are bottling your true thoughts and feelings inside. This card can also suggest a dependence on others' feelings. There is a lack of harmony within you.

 **Question of the Day: Have you ever tried to make friends by being somebody you're not?**


End file.
